Eugene Raffetto, fixture in Mineola, dies at 95

The Island Now

Eugene Raffetto, a World War II veteran and 57-year resident of Mineola who became a fixture in the village, died of natural causes July 25. He was 95.

After five years in the U.S. Army — including 185 days of continuous service on the European front — Raffetto became a quiet but notable presence at Mineola Village Board meetings for at least two decades and was an active member of the village’s Golden Age Club.

“He loved Mineola. You would think he was the mayor when he talked about that town,” said Eugene Raffetto Jr., the older of Raffetto’s two sons.

Raffetto served in the Army’s 373rd Field Artillery Battalion in France and Germany, loading large artillery shells into howitzers and moving the guns into position. The battalion was part of the 100th Division, which fought to seize the French town of Bitche and the German city of Heilbronn in 1945.

Raffetto left the Army in 1949 and later joined the Army Reserve, spending a total of 27 years in the military, Raffetto Jr. said.

“It gave him a greater appreciation for freedom, what it was all about,” Raffetto Jr. said. “Those times are so different. He’s a hardcore vet. He loved his country.”

He and his wife, Lucille, moved into the house on Argyle Avenue in Mineola where they raised three children — Lorraine, 69, Eugene Jr., 66, and John, 58. They never left, and Lucille, now 91, still lives there, Eugene Raffetto Jr. said.

“It was the people, it was the closeness of the town” that Raffetto loved about Mineola, his son said. “It was a good place to raise his family.”

Raffetto “would never turn anybody away” and treated his kids’ friends “like family,” Raffetto Jr. said. 

Among them was village Trustee Paul Cusato, who described Eugene Raffetto Jr. as one of his best boyhood friends.

Cusato spent “countless hours” at the Raffetto house as a child, and remembers playing stoop-ball on his side stoop, he said. 

When Cusato learned Raffetto died, he said, “part of my childhood passed away as well.”

“I always had the utmost respect for him — a husband, a father, a grandfather and great-grandfather,” he said. “Most of you remember him as a friend and as a war veteran who served our country. My memories of him will be different. He will always be a second father to me, and I’m so happy he was part of my life.”

As a civilian, Raffetto managed warehouses in Queens, New Jersey and Long Island for three different supermarket chains and the Farmingdale-based Greenman Brothers toy company.

Raffetto tried to retire from Greenman Brothers when he was about 70, village Trustee Dennis Walsh said, but the company asked him to return after a month because the warehouse wasn’t running as well without him. 

He stayed until he was 78.

 Raffetto was a member of Mineola’s Golden Age Club for seniors for almost 30 years and worked for the Nassau County Board of Elections until he was 93.

He attended Mineola Village Board meetings for at least 20 years, usually sitting in the last row, and developed a close relationship with state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Old Westbury) when he was mayor, Raffetto Jr. said. 

He only stopped coming last year to care for Lucille when she got sick, his son said.

“He wasn’t a big talker at the meetings, but when you came in he gave you that nod, and you gave him that nod back and you knew he was there and you respected him for it,” Raffetto Jr. said. “He would never do anything that he didn’t believe in, ever.”

In addition to his wife, Raffetto is survived by his three children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. His funeral was held Aug. 2 at the Church of St. Aidan in Williston Park and was buried at Calverton National Cemetery.

By Noah Manskar

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