Frank Sinisi, driving force behind Pronto of Long Island, dies at 87

Friends and relatives say Frank Sinisi had a superpower — the power of persuasion. He used it to turn a struggling community organization into a Suffolk County institution that provides food every year to tens of thousands of families.

Sinisi, a retired business executive who died on Dec. 18 at age 87, had been a driving force since the 1980s with Pronto of Long Island, a nonprofit that provides food, clothing and household goods to needy residents of Bay Shore, Brentwood, Central Islip and surrounding areas. Sinisi was a fundraising dynamo, according to his loved ones, who said the longtime Suffolk resident could persuade potential donors to care about the charity and its clients as much as he did.

"Pronto was my father’s pride and joy," said his daughter, Michelle Sinisi of Brightwaters. "His goal was to make sure nobody went hungry, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas."

Commack resident Kathy Bennett said Pronto operated out of a small Cape Cod house on Pine Aire Drive in Bay Shore when she and Frank Sinisi joined the organization in the mid-1980s. Sinisi raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, she said, to build a 10,000-square-foot-facility that includes a food pantry, thrift shop, warehouse and three classrooms used to teach English as a second language and computer training.

"He had a way with contractors," remembered Bennett, who still serves on Pronto’s board of directors. "They would say, ‘It will cost $30,000 to do that, plus labor.’ Before they left, they would agree to free labor and cut off some of the expenses."

Sinisi, born and raised in Brooklyn, was working as a bartender at a Forest Hills bar called Luigi’s when he met the owners’ daughter, Frances, who would become his wife of 62 years. The couple had a son, also named Frank, and daughter Michelle before moving to Commack. The elder Frank Sinisi became a vice president at Itek Corp., a defense contractor, before founding his own business, an executive headhunting business called Graphic International.

Despite the challenges of running his own business, Sinisi still found time to spend with his children, Michelle Sinisi said.

"He always found time to manage my brother’s baseball team," she said. "They won four or five championships with my father as the manager."

The elder Frank Sinisi retired not long after suffering a heart attack at age 62, but he thought the skills he had acquired in the business world were still valuable.

"I felt that I was still young enough to give my time back to the community and back to my faith," Sinisi told Newsday in 2009. "I always wanted to get into working with the poor and the needy."

Sinisi poured his energy into Pronto, helping to turn the struggling charity into an important institution that serves thousands of residents. He served as president during the early 2000s.

The community greatly appreciated his efforts, said Michelle Sinisi, who added her father beamed with joy whenever he would ride on the Pronto float during Brentwood’s annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. He would play Santa Claus at Pronto’s Christmas events, with his wife serving as Mrs. Claus.

Sinisi remained active in Pronto even as his health failed him, Bennett said. He would participate in board meetings by phone when he could no longer travel and reviewed the board minutes when his hearing failed him.

Besides his wife and children, Sinisi is survived by two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. A wake was held at Raynor & D’Andrea Funeral Home in West Sayville on Dec. 21, and a funeral Mass was celebrated at the Church of St. Lawrence the Martyr in Sayville on Dec. 22.

"He filled many hearts with happiness and made a lot of people smile," Michelle Sinisi said. "My father’s memories will last at Pronto forever, because it was him who made it what it is today."