Thomas Conoscenti, economist for major Long Island developments, dies at 80

Thomas Conoscenti, whose economic forecasts and models helped shape decades of development on Long Island, died on Nov. 26 in St. James. He was 80.

"If you look at a lot of the major projects on Long Island — Nassau and Suffolk — he did the economic analysis and justification that enabled them to move forward," Gary Rodolitz, a longtime friend and real estate development consultant said.

Rodolitz, a former chairman of the Hempstead Industrial Development Agency, said Conoscenti was widely respected for his professionalism and the quality of his economic models.

"He could identify from what was being spent, in a fairly accurate way, what the likely impact would be for job creation, sales tax impact, all of these things," Rodolitz said. "Tom had a very good handle on these things and he would make very good predictions."

Conoscenti was regularly quoted in Newsday for decades on issues of Long Island economics.

The son of a cabdriver and seamstress, he spent most of his childhood in Borough Park, Brooklyn, with his sister, said his son Thomas Conoscenti of Albany.

The family later moved to Riverhead where he went to high school and worked at a grocery store. At the suggestion of a grocery store customer from a prominent family he applied to and was accepted at a program at New York University. There, with the help of a scholarship, he received undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics and went on to get his doctorate.

"He was pretty self-motivated," his son said. "It was a big deal for him to go to college and pursue that career."

Back in New York City, he worked his way through school with odd jobs, including as an usher at Radio City Music Hall.

Out of college, his first job was doing economic modeling for Eastern Airlines, his son said. His work took him around the globe to check out airports from Australia to Europe and South America.

Souvenirs from these trips such as volcanic rocks, boomerangs and maracas were scattered across bookshelves filled with economic books, his son said.

He met his wife Marilyn at a Smithtown Republican club event in 1972.

"He had moxie," she said. "He just had a positive attitude and I felt he was very confident and not frightened by anything." She said she also liked that he was close to his family.

The two wed the following year and had two children whom they raised in Nesconset.

Conoscenti worked as an economic consultant and taught at several colleges, including the Long Island campus of Polytechnic University in Farmingdale.

After his family, his great love was sailing, his wife and son said. He bought a used 37-foot boat that the family would take to Block Island. Marilyn Conoscenti said the boat was constantly needing repairs and once when the engine stopped working as they were heading to shore at night he lost his glasses in the water.

"He managed to sail the boat to the dock, in the darkness without his glasses, without an engine and smoothly sail into that," she said. "He was an expert sailor."

Besides his wife and son, he is also survived by his daughter, Lauren Conoscenti of Andover, Massachusetts, sister Joan Berka of East Falmouth, Massachusetts, and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held on Dec. 17 at the Branch Funeral Home in Miller Place from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.