STRICKLAND LEE T

WO1 Lee T. Strickland was a VHPA member who died after his tour in Vietnam on 06/16/2006 at the age of 61.5 from Cancer
Great Neck, NY
Flight Class 67-15
Date of Birth 12/26/1944
Served in the U.S. Army
Served in Vietnam with 611 TC CO in 67-68
Call sign in Vietnam TAILBOARD
This information was provided by Bruce Fischer

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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