I just received a phone call that Jack Lahey passed
away this weekend. Jack was married to Betty Washington.
Jack was drum major for the Imperial Lancers when I stated in 63. He apparently passed away during a parade. My prayers go out to Betty. There's probably something in
todays Ledger.
John Jack Lahey Sr.
LAHEY John Jack Lahey Sr. Active with Elks, 62 A Funeral Mass will be held on Thursday, June 7, in St. Helens Church, Westfield, at 10 a.m., for John Jack Lahey Sr., 62, of Cranford. Mr. Lahey died in the Cape Regional Medical Center in Cape May Courthouse on Saturday, June 2. Visitation will be at the Dooley Funeral Home, 218 West North Ave., Cranford, on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. and Wednesday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. and Thursday at 9 a.m. Interment will be at Fairview Cemetery, Westfield. Born in Newark, he lived in Cranford for 30 years. He was employed as a bookbinder for Alpha Graphics in Edison for the last four years. Before that, he worked for the Prudential Co. in New Providence for 29 years. He was a member of the GIUC Local 612M in West Caldwell. Mr. Lahey was a member of the Union Elk Lodge 1583 BPOE and held several offices as a P.E.R., P.V.P., P.D.D. and was State Parade chairman. He was the devoted husband of Elizabeth Betty Washington Lahey; beloved father of John Lahey Jr. and his wife, Monica, and Colleen A. Zacek and her husband, Rich; loving son of Margaret C. (Conery) and the late Joseph E. Lahey; brother of Joseph Lahey and Margaret Miggins. He will be deeply missed by his grandchildren, Taylor, Zachary and Alexander. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Elks Camp Moore, State Headquarters, P.O. Box 1596, Woodbridge, N.J. 07095.
Published in the Star-Ledger on 6/5/2007.
I was just going to post the news of the death of Jack Lahey. I did not know him personally, but did know his dad and would like to say a few things about him.
Back in 1962, one of my best friends Benny Abruzzo was asked to fill in the last couple of games for the Saint Rose of Lima Senior CYO Team. Apparently they were not too good and were even no-hit by Saint Lucy's and their great pitcher Ron DelMauro (who today is executtive director of Saint Barnabas hospital).
Benny decided that with all the talent in the parish that he was going to work on putting together a pretty good team in 1963. Only trouble was that he never told anyone. I accompanied him to a CYO meeting of some sort and found out that the parish was entering a junior team coached by Ralph Warner and assisted by Jack's dad, Joe Lahey. We couldn't have a team without a coach, so Mr. Lahey volunteered to help us out and coach us, even though he did not know us except for Benny. He must have been pretty good because we won the Essex County CYO Senior 18 and under championship under his direction..
I remember him as a kind, decent and generous man. Our team: Benny Abruzzo,
Ray Iannuzzi, Tony Hammed, Dominic DiFalco, Charlie Hand, Vincent Gowers,
Joe Schrama, Joe Grabowy, and guest players Frank Zeevalk (St. Cassian's Upper Montclair) and Joe Sica (St. Augustines). The CYO allowed up to 2 non-parish players, as long as their parish did not have a team. Today we call them "ringers". Bothwere stars at Essex catholic and Barringer.
Some of the other teams came from St. Francis, Sacred Heart Cathedral,
Sacred Heart Vailsburgh, St. Catherine's Cedar Grove, St. Peter's Belleville,
Holy Family Nutley, St. Roccos, and St. Joseph East Orange.
We played on poor fields at Branch Brook Extensions, had no uniforms, used wooden bats and loved every minute of it. Thank you Joe Lahey. After him came Ralph Warner and then Bob Crowley giving their time for the kids.
He used to say "give it your best on every play, if not for the team, but yourself." He would then add "you never know who is watching."
Sure enough after a brilliant pitching performance by Tony Hammed, he was approached by a tall man in a suit who identified himself as former big leaguer
Johnny Van Der Meer of Fair Lawn. He was there scouting prospects for Cincinnati and took information from Tony. I have no way of knowing if that was really him, but it probably was.
Benny Abruzzo was continually scouted by John "Honey" Russell, former Seton Hall basketball coach and at that time a scout for the Montreal Expos. While working for
the Braves he signed Joe and Frank Torre. He wanted to sign Benny, but the Expos thought he was tall 5'7" for a big league outfielder. I personally heard Russell say this
Funny how 44 years later, I still remember what Mr. Lahey told us. He certainly left his mark on this world.
