Mineola’s Gary Mazur became the latest recipient of the John S. DaVanzo Wall of Honor Award on Wednesday, Oct. 25. 

Mazur has been a firefighter with the Mineola Volunteer Fire Department since 1976 and served as chief of the department in 1998.

Mazur, otherwise known as “Amazin Maze,” is one of the firefighters who was influential in rebuilding the department’s junior firefighter program while serving as the head advisor.

Mineola Mayor Paul Pereira said the wall was made to honor residents and community leaders who were not always acknowledged for their civic services and that Mazur was the perfect recipient to be honored this year.  

“I think we can agree the juniors are what they are and they are who they are because of Gary Mazur,” Pereira said. “All these new chiefs and new officers that are coming through the department now came through Gary first.”

Former Chief Robert Connolly said Mazur’s climb through the department’s ranks was a result of his “infectious energy.”

“That is Gary’s knack,” Connolly said. “He has an ability to get people to want to work with him, to want to be successful and that starts with our junior fire department.”

Connolly said Mazur recognized the importance of sustaining the juniors as chief and became a special assistant to them after his term, eventually turning them into ambassadors to the community. 

The ex-chief said Mazur helped bring along the juniors’ annual pasta dinner in February, yearly trips to Lake George and Operation Santa, among other events. 

When Mazur became chief the juniors had less than 10 members and he asked fellow firefighter Bill Gresalfi to help build it up.

By Christmas of 1998, Gresalfi had recruited 20 new members for the junior ranks. One of the biggest things the two instituted was having the juniors come to the department more often, instead of just the two meetings a month for a meeting and drill, Connolly said.

The training regimen also changed where with parental permission, juniors who had six months of training could respond to fire calls with full members and assist them during their operations.

In 2005, the Mineola Junior Fire Department began a relationship with the Stellingen-Hamburg Fire Department in Germany. Stellingen-Hamburg advisers and junior firefighters came to the village to observe and participate in training with Mineola’s department in 2006 and 2007. 

In 2008, the village’s junior fire department traveled to Hamburg, Germany, to complete their half of the program. 

Mazur thanked the department members and elected officials for being at the village hall to recognize him and saved the rest of his words for the dinner afterward held in his honor.

The wall, established in 2015 and named after DaVanzo, the longtime Mineola official nicknamed “Mr. Mineola,” honored longtime scoutmaster of the village’s Troop 45 Steven Grosskopf last year. 

Previous award recipients include first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ann Galante, Mineola’s first female trustee, mayor and former North Hempstead receiver of taxes, Lou Sanders, Ed Smith, Stanley Krause, Robert Hinck and Lou Santosus.

Recipients are chosen by a committee made up of village trustees, chamber of commerce board members and a designated resident.

As part of the award, a black-and-silver plaque of Mazur will be on the wall in the village hall lobby where DaVanzo once sat at a desk and greeted those who came in. 

DaVanzo was a Mineola resident his entire life, graduating from Mineola High School in 1938 before serving on the USS Glennon from 1943 to 1946, during which he survived D-Day.

In 1947, DaVanzo joined the Mineola Volunteer Fire Department, serving as captain of Engine Company 1 from 1953 to 1955. He received the National Volunteer Firefighter of the Year award in 2004 and was named an honorary chief in 2007.

DaVanzo served a total of 43 years as a village trustee, deputy mayor, North Hempstead town councilman and town clerk combined as well as being named New York State Clerk of the Year in 1986.