The Village of Great Neck Plaza recently
announced the establishment of a scholarship, "In Memory of Walter Handelman, P.E.," for the village's late beloved Village Engineer. Mayor
Jean Celender presented a check for $1,500 to Candy Gould, President of
the Great Neck Student Aid Fund and Board of Directors member, Madge
Kaplan.
In presenting the check, Mayor Celender
stated, "Walter Handelman was an integral part of our village family.
As our Village Engineer for over 30 years, we in the village were
devastated by his untimely death a year ago. It is our intent and
desire to establish this fund as an annual scholarship to keep Walter's
memory alive and thriving by providing a deserved, talented high school
student with an opportunity for higher education that may not otherwise
have been available."
Present at the presentation ceremony was
Walter's widow, Marlene Handelman. Mayor Celender read a letter
enumerating some of Walter's tremendous accomplishments and activities not
only in the Great Neck community, a community which he was a long-time
resident and loved, but throughout his illustrious professional
engineering career in New York City and Nassau/Suffolk Counties. The
mayor added, "As part of the annual scholarship presentation, we would
like the recipient to know about the life of a great man that this fund
memorializes, with a copy of this letter." In addition to serving as
Village Engineer, Walter Handelman was a retired engineer with the New
York State Department of Transportation, and had a long professional
engineering career as a Construction Inspector and Engineer-In-Charge on
many of the region's major state highway projects, including Prospect
Expressway, Major Deegan Expresswy, Northern State Parkway, Long Island
Expressway (during its original construction in the 1960's and later in
the mid 1990's to 2003 during the expansion of the 4th lane (HOV)
and bridge widening projects), and the LIE/Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway
Interchange Improvement Project. He was also Village Engineer and
assisted several other Great Neck peninsula villages on roadway and
traffic safety improvement projects.
The Village is pleased and honored to
establish the scholarship "In Memory of Walter Handelman, P.E." with the
Great Neck Student Aid Fund. Walter was greatly admired by his friends
and colleagues and one of his many talents was being a wonderful teacher.
He so enjoyed sharing his tremendous knowledge and experience in traffic
engineering and construction to the people who worked side by side with
him. "This scholarship is very befitting for Walter," reflected Mayor
Celender, "in that the learning and imparting of knowledge will carry on
for students fortunate to receive this scholarship in his memory."
Persons wishing to contribute to the Great
Neck Student Aid Fund "In the Memory of Walter Handelman, P.E." or to
support the fund's mission in general can make a tax-deductible
contribution to Great Neck Student Aid Fund, Inc., P.O. Box 1067, Great
Neck, NY 11023. With your help, the Student Aid Fund can make a
difference for a local high school student. For further information,
contact President Candy Gould at (516) 829-9437.
