Charles O’Shea: a man of compassion

Charles O’Shea was honored for his service to the community by the Knights of Columbus St. Frances de Chantal Council 6526 and St. Frances parish at a dinner dance last weekend.

“Charlie is never out there saying ‘look at me,’” Deacon Robert O’Donovan, of St. Frances De Chantel, said. “He is a man dedicated to quiet service to the community.”

That philosophy of quiet service may be the result of his years as the owner of the O’Shea Funeral Homes in Wantagh and East Meadow, where O’Shea has seen people at their most vulnerable. “He knows how to take care of a family in distress,” O’Donovan said. “It is a very special talent to help the bereaved.”

O’Shea has had a lifetime to learn the intricacies of working with the bereaved. His father was also a funeral director. Growing up, O’Shea, along with his 11 siblings, lived above his father’s funeral home. “In those days a wake went straight through — 11 a.m. to 11 p.m,” O’Shea said. “My mother used to tell me to go down and give my father a break so he could have his supper.”

When O’Shea returned from Korea in 1953, after serving in the Marine Corps, he attended school to become a funeral director and went off on his own. “I went to the Baldwin Savings Bank and this man, named Ted Eckhardt, gave me a mortgage,” said O’Shea. In 1963, then 28-year-old O’Shea opened his first funeral home in East Meadow.

“It’s not the easiest business,” O’Shea said. “It’s a lot of word of mouth. You must prove yourself to the community. They have to learn to trust you.”

One of the first things he did, as a new funeral director, was to make a promise “to the good Lord that I would never charge for a baby’s funeral,” he said. For more than 50 years, O’Shea proudly says he has kept that promise.

“You have to be compassionate, but you’re not a mourner,” O’Shea explained. “You have a job to do, you must be at their side to help them through the beginning of their grief.”

Over the years, O’Shea got to know his community. He served as president of the East Meadow Chamber of Commerce, was a member of Saint Raphael’s Catholic Church and a member of the Pope Pius Council of the Knights of Columbus. “I was also involved in lots of clubs,” O’Shea explained.