Obituaries

Levittown Community Remembers Frank Mazza

The impact of the Division employee and community figure, who passed away Sunday at the age of 56, extended far and wide.

To many people around Levittown, Frank Mazza, who passed away Sunday at the age of 56, was a nice man, a man heavily involved in his community. To one group of kids at Division Avenue High School, though, Mazza was much more.

Mazza began working with students in Division’s career development (CD) program following his retirement after 25 years in New York City’s Department of Sanitation. The program was a perfect fit for someone with Mazza’s kind heart, according to Marty Nelson, Division’s Chairperson of Special Education.

“He would treat them like princes and princesses,” Nelson said. “They were so happy to see Mr. Frank. They would run up to him, and he would just give them so much attention.”

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Those kids, along with the rest of the community, were saddened when news of Mazza’s death became known. “They were heartbroken,” Nelson said. “He just couldn’t do enough for these kids, and he treated them like they were his own.”

The 56-year-old suffered a brain aneurysm while working at Division’s home football game Saturday. He was taken to Nassau University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead Sunday morning.

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Mazza’s impact in Levittown stretched far and wide. He dedicated nearly two decades’ worth of service to Levittown’s Red Devils Youth Football program. As assistant commissioner, he worked closely with Commissioner Dennis Machado. They also did many things together outside of the organization.

“He was very willing to work with people,” Machado said. “He was very easy to work with. We coached together for a few years. It was a good relationship.”

Perhaps Mazza’s most significant impact was with East Meadow’s PAL, where he was president. Under his watch, the organization expanded from one basketball program to a league with over 1,000 kids. East Meadow PAL vice president John Spirou, speaking to Patch’s Michael Ganci Monday, remembered a man driven to help his community.

"He just didn't say no to people," Spirou said. "If the community wanted a program, Frank found a way to make it happen."

Machado had similar praise for his assistant. “He was a man that always gave to somebody, to help somebody,” he said. “If he had to give it, he gave it to somebody.”

Nelson will remember Mazza as a man who loved his family, which included his wife Karen and sons Steven (currently training to become an NYPD officer) and Daniel (a middle school student in the Levittown school district). But he also had a special place in his heart for the CD kids he worked with on a daily basis.

“Family was so important to him,” Nelson said. “His wife, his two kids, they were his world, and he treated the kids of CD the same way. They were [part of] his family.”

Visitation hours for Frank Mazza will be at Charles J. O'Shea Funeral Home in Wantagh from 2-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. on Tuesday. For information on how to donate to the East Meadow PAL's Frank Mazza Fund, read Monday's story on the passing of Frank Mazza here.


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