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NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - Richard Michael Syracuse of New Rochelle died Wednesday, Sept. 25. He was 91.
Syracuse was born in New York City in 1922. He attended Stuyvesant High School and the College of the City of New York (School of Engineering), graduating in 1942. From 1942 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Army in the European Theater of Operations of World War II and was discharged as a captain. From 1946 to 1953, he worked in institutional public relations, sales, and engineering, and also worked in the building business with his father in both New York and Florida. I
In 1953, he went into the building business with his brothers Joseph and Donald, working together as Syracuse Brothers, Inc., Syracuse Brothers Development Corp., and Briarcliff Contemporaries. As president of Syracuse Brothers and its affiliated companies, the builders constructed over 500 single family homes in Westchester County, including the developments Bonnie Crest Estates, Wykagyl Woods, Briarcliff Park Homes, Jefferson Valley Estates, The Anchorage, and Countryside. Syracuse Brothers also built over 350 condominium townhouses, garden apartments and high-rise apartments in New York and New Jersey, including the first condominium in New York State at Hillcrest Park in Peekskill, NY.
Syracuse was a past president of the Westchester Home Builders Association as well as the Builders Institute of Westchester and Putnam Counties, where he also served as chairman of the Board of Trustees. He was the past co-Chairman of the Building Industry and Labor Management Committee of Westchester and Putnam Counties.
A resident of New Rochelle since 1960, he was a member of the New Rochelle Board of Education Plant Planning Committee. He was also a member of the New Rochelle Library Board of Trustees and was instrumental in the planning and construction of the new main Library Building at 1 Library Plaza. He served as chairman of the New Rochelle Planning Board and was a past president and director of the New Rochelle Neighborhood Revitalization Corp.
Syracuse is survived by his daughters, Maleyne (Michael) Trenner of New York and Milford, Pa., Andrea (Randy) Silverstein, of Pelham, Rina and her partner, Albert Monteleone, of New Rochelle; son, Richard (Rose) of Saugerties; two grandchildren; lifelong friends, Ethel Cohen, Milton and Mae Kramer; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his wife, Claire (née Coppola); and brothers, Joseph and Donald Syracuse.
A Funeral Service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 30 at the George T. Davis Funeral Home. Interment will follow with full military honors at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne.
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