Julio Rivera, Glen Cove laundromat owner and talented tinkerer, dies at 77

One of nine children, Julio Rivera didn’t get the chance to go past fifth grade but had the drive to buy a laundromat and a tire business after decades of factory work, his family said.

He could divine the problem in anything with a motor and fix it, including washing machines, the broken window of a car and a lawn mower bound for the trash, those who knew him said. When he was a young, married man, he bought used cars to fix and sell to bring in money, his children said. A snowbird in retirement, he constantly upgraded the two Jeep Wranglers he drove, a black one while on Long Island for the summer and a green one in Puerto Rico during the winter.

“He was a doer; he was always fixing whatever needed to be fixed at your house,” said son-in-law Brian Simmons, of Glen Cove. “There wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix so a lot of people called him for that reason.”

Rivera, of Glen Cove and Puerto Rico, died in Rome, Italy, on April 29 during a European family vacation. He was 77 and his death came after a stroke in March, his family said.

Relatives remember Rivera’s tinkering talents also yielded delicious results. He cut a stainless steel drum in half to make a barbecue grill with rotisserie, roasting chicken and whole pigs, relatives said.

It was more than his rub of fresh garlic, olive oil and seasonings that made his barbecued platters a favorite among neighbors and friends, said his daughter, Sandra Jorge, of Glen Cove: “Sometimes I think it was just his love.”

Born outside Ponce, Puerto Rico’s second-largest city, Julio was a boy when his father died, forcing him to work odd jobs for the family to survive, his daughter said. At one point, he told his daughters, he and his brothers walked miles to get free house-building boards provided by the government, then carry them back home.

He was a teenager when he arrived in Glen Cove to help his older sister take care of her children, his daughter said.

In his 20s, he worked at Photocircuits Corp. in Glen Cove, which made circuit boards, then at Thomson Industries in Port Washington, which made ball screws, gear boxes and other parts for industries.

He retired from factory work about 25 years ago and started Boricua Laundromat in Glen Cove, giving the business a name related to Borinquen, the name that Puerto Rico’s Indigenous people called their island. The work crew consisted of his family, and if the machines broke, Rivera fixed them.

“He liked being his own boss,” Sandra Jorge said. “He liked controlling everything about his own business.”

After several years, he sold the laundromat to split his retirement between Glen Cove and Puerto Rico, and bought a tire business on the Caribbean island when he needed something to do, his family said.

In his senior years, he learned some basic computer and social media skills, his daughter recalled. While YouTube gave him old movies and repair videos, she said, his Facebook page allowed him to reconnect with people he had lost touch with years ago.

A generous man, Rivera opened his heart to in-laws, his home to relatives and his kitchen to the homeless by dashing home to get food when he saw people living on the streets, Simmons said, “He was a kind and considerate man who helped a tremendous number of people.”

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his children Maria Simmons and Julio Jr., both of Glen Cove; brothers, Efrain Baptista, of Ponce, Puerto Rico, and Robert Rivera, of Orlando, Florida; and sisters, Amelia Baptista, of Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico, and Rosa Fontanez, of North Plainfield, New Jersey.

A service was held May 21 at the Dodge-Thomas Funeral Home in Glen Cove, followed by burial at East Hillside Cemetery in Old Brookville.