Gerry Denk, 70, dead; 'Mr. Mayor' of Lynbrook who tackled church shooter in 2002

Gerry Denk, honored as a hero in 2002 after wresting a rifle from a gunman who killed two people inside a Lynbrook church, has died of throat cancer. He will be buried Monday.

Denk shied away from kudos, staying in the background after performing many kind acts for people and the community, those who knew him said. He successfully campaigned for train crossing gates at Westwood Park in Malverne, long before such gates were common, his family said. He regularly asked his wife to buy extra goods at the supermarket for the church food pantry.

He offered to help one man with gardening and fixing cars — moments after they first met. He coached Little League and helped his daughter, a grade-school teacher, with student projects, including how to make a Morse code machine.

“He was everybody’s angel,” said his daughter, Tara Denk of Lynbrook.

Gerry Denk died on April 27 at age 70, having defeated jaw cancer as a young man. He had lived in Lynbrook since his parents adopted him as a baby in Ireland.

On March 12, 2002, he was attending the 9 a.m. Mass at Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Church, as he did every day, and sitting in the last pew as usual when he saw a man pacing in the vestibule, he told his family. Then he noticed the man’s stiff arm and concluded the man was hiding a long gun under his jacket, they said.

Denk ducked just as the man walked toward the altar and opened fire, killing a priest and a parishioner, said his wife, Louise Denk of Lynbrook. Her husband, a retired Marine with a slender build, then struggled with the taller and heavier gunman as he continued to fire. Gerry Denk then chased the shooter, Peter Troy, who ran home and was later arrested by police. Troy was convicted and sentenced to up to life in prison.

“ ‘It was just something I was trained to do, being in the military,’ ” Denk's wife recalled him saying.

Denk was No. 2 on the Vietnam War draft lottery and chose the Marines, to be with “the toughest,” his family said.

Between 1972 and 1976, he served in the Philippines, in counterintelligence in Southeast Asia and drug interdiction in South America, said his friend Ed Mahoney, who met him at Westwood Park during one of Denk’s daily walks with his dogs.

Denk, a private man, revealed little about his service but loved the Marines and would likely have made it his career if jaw cancer in 1975 hadn’t left him with lasting disabilities, including a speech impediment, his family said.

Discharged as a sergeant in 1976, Denk seemed to make helping others his life's mission. He poured water into the eyes of a sanitation worker who was splashed by debris from a garbage truck compactor, family members said. Another time, he ran into the ocean to help pull out struggling young swimmers, they said. He’d trim bushes in his mother’s yard, even though he would need allergy injections due to bee stings, they said.

He gained a nickname, "Mr. Mayor," as a man about town in his daily walks, including with a group of about seven men taking their dogs out.

“We’d take my daughter and walk to the park and people would stop him,” Tara Denk said. “It would take us so long to get to this little park because so many people would come up to him to say hi.”

The retired Marine would offer a needed nudge to get things done, those who knew him said.

“He would go out of his way to do anything he could do to help someone else,” said Mahoney, a former NYPD officer. “He needed PBA cards for the nuns over at the church. He wanted these women to be able to drive a car, and if they got stopped, hopefully the cop would let them go.”

One Thanksgiving, after Denk and his family had dinner at his sister’s Manhattan apartment, he noticed homeless people in a nearby park. “He would say, ‘Wow, these poor people. We just ate a full meal. Next year, we’re bringing them stuff,’ ” Louise Denk said.

It became a Denk Thanksgiving tradition to give out up to 100 pies and packaged meals, along with coats, at the park.

Perhaps Denk’s last gesture of help was for his wife, when he told her, “Don’t sit around crying for me.”

“He gave more than his all,” she said.

Besides his wife and daughter, Denk is survived by a son, Gregory of Nassau County; and sisters Denise Schanck of Manhattan and Barbara Kolesar of Connecticut.

A funeral Mass was celebrated 11 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Malverne, followed by burial at Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury. Donations may be made to the North Shore Animal League and church food pantries.