Remembering Mr. B

Longtime Recreation Superintendent Anthony Brunetta, known around Rockville Centre simply as Mr. B, died on Aug. 5. He was 85.

Born on Aug. 13, 1930, to Italian immigrants Frank and Domenica Brunetta, he was a lifelong village resident, and headed the Recreation Department for more than 35 years.

“Rockville Centre has not only lost a dedicated public servant, but also a dear friend,” said Mayor Francis X. Murray. “Mr. Brunetta was a fixture at our Recreation Center and has touched the lives of countless residents. His warm smile and the dignity in which he treated everyone can never be replicated. He will be missed, but we are grateful to have had him on our team for over five decades.”

Brunetta attended St. Agnes Cathedral Elementary School and South Side High School. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he returned home and went to work in the family contracting business. Shortly thereafter, he married Ethel Smith of East Rockaway, and together they raised four sons — Tony, Frank, Joseph and Tommy.

In the 1950s, while still working full-time in construction, Brunetta took a part-time job with the village’s Recreation Department, and organized the first-ever RVC Softball League. He discovered that he loved working with children, and became a full-time staff member in 1973. In February 1980 he became the superintendent of the Recreation Department, and in 1988 he became the superintendent of the Department of Parks.

Recreation Center workers young, old and in between said they adored Brunetta. “I’ve had three bosses in my life,” said Donna Brown, who has worked at the Recreation Center for 28 years. “He was the best.”

Keri Maxwell, who works in the Center’s preschool program, said that Brunetta always wanted the best for children and did everything possible to empower them.

Heather Knoch and Linardy Loveras, young adults who started working at the Rec Center as teenagers, said Brunetta was like their grandfather and was always there to support them. Rosalie Rodriguez said that Mr. B reached out to the Latino community in the village and gave them jobs and opportunities that they would not have otherwise.

“He knew so many things about every single employee,” said Ginger Creegan, who worked with Brunetta for 40 years. “There were hundreds of them at a time … He knew every single one by name, where they live, where they go to college … The Rec Center will continue on, but it will never, ever be the same.”

Brunetta was honored by numerous organizations, including the Rockville Centre Guild for the Arts, the Education Foundation, the Boy Scouts and Teen Challenge. Groups as diverse as the Catholic Youth Organization, the South Shore section of the National Council of Jewish Women, the Hispanic Brotherhood and the Dr. Martin Luther King Center recognized him, and a pavilion at the Rec Center was named for him. The Herald named him Man of the Year in 1991 for his devotion to the village and the many programs he started at the Rec Center during his tenure.

“Anthony Brunetta represented all that is wonderful and admirable about his generation,” said Deputy Mayor Nancy Howard. “His work ethic, devotion to the Rec center staff and dedication to the residents of Rockville Centre made him an exceptional employee and mentor to the youth of Rockville Centre. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy to this community will be remembered for a long, long time.”

He is survived by a brother, Joseph; sons Anthony, Frank and Joseph; and seven grandchildren.

A funeral Mass was held at Saint Agnes Cathedral on Aug. 9. About 500 people attended, including a legion of blue-shirted Recreation Center workers.

“He certainly was one who welcomed children into his life,” Monsignor William Koenig said at the service. “… [H]e had generations and generations of contact with children. With children who would come to play, to develop gifts and talents that they had.”

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Hospice Care Network, at hospicecarenetwork.org.