Huntington street to be named after legendary Long Island saxophonist Pat DeRosa
Pat DeRosa, seen performing in 2013, was a Guinness World Records-holding saxophonist and a Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame inductee.
Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Late jazz saxophonist and music educator Pat A. DeRosa of Montauk, who died in 2023 at 101, will have a street named in his honor by the Town of Huntington on Friday at noon at the intersection of West 19th Street and 12th Avenue in Huntington Station, where his family home was located. The road will be called “Pat A. DeRosa Way.”
“Pat DeRosa’s legacy as a musician and educator profoundly influenced our community,” said Town Councilwoman Theresa Mari. “This street dedication is a tribute to his lifelong commitment to the arts and his enduring impact on South Huntington.”
DeRosa performed with the Maj. Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra; bandleaders Lionel Hampton and Tommy Tucker; and jazz legend and fellow Long Islander John Coltrane, with whom he played for three years until Coltrane’s death in 1967. Earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education at the Manhattan School of Music, DeRosa taught music at Huntington Elementary and South Huntington Memorial Junior High School.
In the late 1940s, DeRosa performed at the Strand Theater Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and Paramount Theatre with Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Andy Williams and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. DeRosa even performed at the 1969 inaugural ball for President Richard Nixon.
In 2016, DeRosa was inducted into the South Huntington Union Free School District Hall of Fame. In 2018, Guinness World Records officially declared him the oldest professional saxophonist in the world still gigging and in 2020 he was inducted into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.
David J. Criblez is a reporter for Newsday's exploreLI, covering entertainment-related events from local music to stand-up comedy to festivals.