More detail on this person: Lee Strickland, a
fire department chief for the Manhasset-Lakeville
Fire Department who became Santa every
December, died of heart failure on Friday night at
St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, just two weeks
after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He
was 61.
A third-generation resident of Great Neck,
Strickland dedicated his life to serving his
country and his community, friends said.
He was a life member of the Veterans of Foreign
Wars, and for over half his life, he was a
volunteer firefighter. Each December, for over 25
years, he would dress up as Santa Claus and throw
candy canes to children from a fire truck.
Charles G. Stepanek, who volunteered with
Strickland in the Fire Department, thought he was
the perfect neighborhood Santa.
"He had a very hearty laugh," said Stepanek. "He
just fit the mold, someone who's big and jolly."
Strickland grew up in Hicksville, a couple of
houses away from his future wife, Madeline Reid.
When he was 13, he dated Reid but they went their
separate ways, and it would be more than 40 years
until they were reunited and married. That 1999
reunion, said Madeline, came after she visited her
old Hicksville home and asked a friend for his
telephone number.
Several months later, on Valentine's Day in 2000,
they were engaged, and by August they were
married. The two lived in the house that
Strickland's grandfather built in Great Neck.
Strickland was born in Jamaica Hospital. He
graduated from Hicksville High School in 1962, and
a couple years later, he enlisted in the Army and
served a tour of duty in Vietnam. He received a
Bronze Star for his work retrieving fallen
aircraft that were either shot down or had
mechanical failures.
"I can't tell you how many people's lives he's
saved, one by one," said Madeline Strickland.
Never abandoning his passion for flying, he became
a professor of aeronautics at Vaughn College in
East Elmhurst, Queens, where he taught aviation
maintenance technology.
In 1975, he joined the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire
Department. In 2004, he was awarded a Fire
Department Medal of Valor for using his car to
block a speeding motorist from hitting a fire
truck. Last year, he became chief of the
department.
In addition to his wife, Strickland is survived by
his three stepchildren, Jackie Burke of
Farmingdale, Tiffany Howell of Hicksville, and
Tommy Howell of Douglaston, and his brother
William of Hicksville.
A Mass was said yesterday at St. Mary Church in
Manhasset. He was buried in Calverton National
Cemetery.
Burial information: Calverton National Cemetery
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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