Obituary of Neil Nugent

Neil J. Nugent of Huntington died July 31, 2020 in the loving arms of his wife, children and grandchildren. He was the beloved husband of Patricia for 56 years and adored father of Kelly Dall and Heather McCormack. He dearly loved his son-in-law James McCormack and his grandchildren Carleigh, Cade, Aidan, and Ronan McCormack and Sean, Ava and, Elle Dall. He cherished all of his nieces and nephews especially Kathy, Frank, Danny, Alex, Will and Jake Casale. Neil devoted his life to family members, friends, students, and his neighbors and was a surrogate father and moral compass to many by being a role model who was decent, honest, fair, and loving. He was an ocean lifeguard at Tobay Beach for 17 years and mentored new lifeguards to understand the ocean and when and how to rescue a person in trouble. He was a college professor and administrator at Nassau Community College for over 50 years. He was one of the corner stones of the institution and his legacy was that he was always a vocal and behavioral advocate for students. He served his community as a firefighter and EMT at the Halesite Fire Department for 31 years and was a Fire Commissioner for 10 of those years. Neil also served his country in the United States Navy and spent four years as a personnel officer on destroyers mostly in the North Atlantic. Neil loved coaching women’s spring and fall soccer for 7 years and the players loved him because everyone played an equal amount of time whether you were a star or not. He respected everyone for who they were regardless of age, gender, color, or ability. Neil was an All American heavyweight wrestler in college and recently was inducted into the NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame. Neil was a big man with a big personality and a big heart. He will be missed terribly!