Saddle Rock Mayor J. Leonard Samansky dies

J. Leonard Samansky, who had been mayor of the village of Saddle Rock for two decades, would always answer the telephone, even when a call came as late as 11 p.m.

That was his job, he said, according to his son, Adam Samansky of Andover, Mass.

"He cared so deeply about his community," his son said. "No matter how big or small the issue."

Samansky, who was mayor for nearly a quarter of Saddle Rock's existence, died of heart failure Thursday night at age 74.

Samansky was born on Dec. 12, 1936, in Brooklyn. His father, Frank Samansky, was a New York State assemblyman and State Supreme Court justice, which spurred his son's interest in politics.

After graduating from Brooklyn College and Brooklyn Law School, he joined a Manhattan law firm in 1962, eventually becoming a partner there. In 1983, he went into solo practice in Manhattan and then moved his office to Great Neck.

In 1991, he was elected to his first of what would be 11 two-year terms as village mayor. According to village Clerk Donna Perone, he ran unopposed in every election, including the last one in March 2011.

Though he was assured re-election, Samansky wrote a letter to each village resident around election time to ask for votes and to list his accomplishments in the previous term, his son said, adding that his father insisted this was the right way to run for office.

When he was asked about when he planned to leave office, he would respond that his work was not done, his son said.

"In many ways, being the mayor of a village the size of Saddle Rock can very much be a thankless job," Adam Samansky said. "But he loved it. He loved serving his community."

It was as mayor and Nassau County emergency management chief that he took one action of which his family said he may have been most proud: rechristening the Saddle Rock Bridge the 9-11 Memorial Bridge. He also made sure that county photographers captured the makeshift memorials that took shape on the bridge in the hours and days after the attack.

It was on his watch that the village's Town Hall was built in the late 1990s. While mayor, he also took on other responsibilities, including serving as president of the Great Neck Village Officials Association, president of the Nassau County Village Officials Association and director of the Great Neck North Water Authority.

"He was passionate about most things he undertook, especially his village, the entire Great Neck community and village government in the county and beyond," Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said in a statement. "Leonard can never be replaced and will be sorely missed."

Other survivors are his wife, Shirley of Saddle Rock; a brother, Arthur of Old Bethpage; three stepdaughters, Debra Weinstein of Newton, Mass., Janet Lord of Phoenix and Linda Weinstein of Newton, Mass.; and seven grandchildren. A service will be held Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at Sinai Chapels in Fresh Meadows, Queens, with burial to follow at New Montefiore Cemetery in West Babylon.