STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Gerald Mulvaney, of Westerleigh, a U.S. Air Force veteran, elevator mechanic and respected high school football official, died Dec. 3 at age 88. He was a proud member of Staten Island\u2019s Irish community known for his good nature and his trademark handlebar mustache.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people said he really made a big difference in their lives,\u2019’ said his daughter, Maureen Eller.<\/p>\n
A New Brighton native, Mr. Mulvaney graduated from St. Peter\u2019s Boys High School, West Brighton. He was a member of the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 1, and retired in February 2002 after 42 years of service.<\/p>\n
During his career, he worked on some of the biggest skyscrapers in New York City, including the World Trade Center, and was present during the attack in 1993.<\/p>\n
Additionally, he was a shop steward for approximately 25 years on various job locations, and was a member of the Staten Island branch of the Local 1 Retirees Club, \u201cThe Golden Oldies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Football official<\/p>\n
He became a referee in the mid-1960s in the Pop Warner Staten Island Boys Football League, and officiated Pop Warner football for over 25 years. In addition, he coached a Bantam Division team, winning several championships, and served as second vice president on the SIBFL board for five years.<\/p>\n
Mr. Mulvaney also officiated football in the New York City Public School Athletic League for over 25 years. <\/p>\n
He was remembered fondly by Hall of Fame Susan Wagner High School Football Coach Al Paturzo, who admitted with a chuckle that he, himself, wasn\u2019t known to make friends with many referees.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was good at his vocation; he was great,\u2019’ he said of Mulvaney. \u201dA good guy. Fair, square.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach said he got to know the Mulvaney family better once young William \u201cBilly\u201d Mulvaney began to play football for Paturzo. Then, Mr. Mulvaney avoided officiating Susan Wagner games, instead focusing on support of the program, he recalled.<\/p>\n
The Mulvaney family, he said, comprised \u201coutstanding people.\u201d<\/p>\n
During that time, Mr. Mulvaney held several positions in the PSAL Football Officials Association, including president.<\/p>\n
Mr. Mulvaney was a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament R.C. Church, West Brighton, for over 70 years. During this time, he belonged to various church organizations. He joined the Blessed Sacrament Titan League in the mid-\u201960s and coached and officiated in both the baseball and basketball programs. He served as a vice president of the league for three years and held the office of baseball commissioner and basketball commissioner. He also was a member of the Titan League Breakfast Club, which is comprised of retired and active Titan League members, and Blessed Sacrament\u2019s Holy Name Society. He was one of the first coaches of the Blessed Sacrament CYO boys basketball team.<\/p>\n
He was an active member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Richmond County, and most recently served as the recording secretary, a position he held for the past three years. In 2014, he served as grand marshal of the 50th Anniversary St. Patrick\u2019s Parade along Forest Avenue. He also once served as the aide to the grand marshal in the New York City St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very proud of his Irish heritage, very proud,\u2019’ said Eller. \u201dHe was very proud of his family. Family was everything to him.” <\/p>\n
In 2004, he joined the Knights of Columbus, Richmond Council #351, where he held the position of recorder for two years and most recently served as inside guard. In May 2005, he took his Fourth Degree and was a member of the Knights of Columbus Governor Dongan Assembly.<\/p>\n
He and his wife, the former Florence Ahearn, were married for 69 years. The two enjoyed travel, including two trips to Ireland. They were loyal New York Giants football fans.<\/p>\n
In addition to his wife, son and daughter, Mr. Mulvaney is survived by a son, Gerald; a son-in-law, Dave Eller; daughters-in-law, Debbie and Laurie Mulvaney; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. <\/p>\n
Funeral services have already taken place. Mr. Mulvaney was buried in St. Peters Cemetery, West Brighton. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Gerald Mulvaney, of Westerleigh, a U.S. Air Force veteran, elevator mechanic and respected high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-74751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}