Robert McIntyre, Village of Great Neck mayor from 1977 to 1981, died on April 29 of heart failure in Haslett, Mich. He was 85.
“He was dedicated to serving residents, and he wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty doing so,” Newsday reported his son Doug as saying. Calls to reach him were unavailing.
McIntyre was born in Hollis, Queens on Dec. 18, 1931, and moved to Great Neck in 1942. He attended Great Neck High School, starring as an athlete in baseball, basketball and soccer, and graduated there in 1949.
McIntyre joined the U.S. Navy in 1949 and was honorably discharged in 1951.
He was enrolled at the State University of New York Maritime Academy at Ft. Schuyler, serving as an engineer aboard the TS Empire State II, which took him to Greece and Italy. McIntyre also spent a semester playing basketball at the University of Mississippi.
Upon returning to New York, McIntyre worked as a draftsman and a mechanical engineer. Within a few years he married Geraldine Reed of Great Neck in July 1954. The couple had three children together: Jeffrey McIntyre, Douglas McIntyre and Kathleen McIntyre Herndon. The marriage ended in divorce.
McIntyre first joined the Village of Great Neck government in 1971, when he served on the Great Neck Planning Board.
“I was the only one who knew how to read a blueprint,” McIntyre is reported to have said. He then served two terms on the Board of Trustees until winning his mayoral race in 1977. He served two terms until 1981.
McIntyre then married Arlene Mann in 1987 and moved to Ocean Pines, Md. That marriage ended with Mann’s death from cancer.
McIntyre is survived by his wife of 21-years Nancy Scudder McIntyre, who served as a volunteer coordinator and on the Auxiliary Board of Atlantic General Hospital, two of his three children, and six grandchildren. His son Jeffrey predeceased him in 2013.
Private services were conducted on May 6, 2017, in Owosso, Mich.
