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For the Previous Hall of Fame Inductees turn to page 42 2013
Gary Melius
Oheka Castle Hotel & Estate Owner It’s a classic story of being at the right place with the right price. Gary Melius, a successful Long Island developer, bought Otto Kahn’s fabled Oheka Castle and the remaining 23 acres of the financier’s estate for a mere $1.5 million in 1984, and the rest is history. Over the years, he’s made the French-style mansion the Island’s most luxurious wedding palace for fairy tale nuptials and is host to the rich and famous. Melius has managed to keep revenues in the multi-million mark year after year, despite the Great Recession that has dogged many other high-end venues. The classy castle is part of the Five Star Alliance and the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group, where the powerful and the plentiful gather in lush surroundings that recall the glorious days of the Gold Coast at its best. From his card games to his noteworthy power lunches, to his politicking for the Independence Party line, Melius carries on in a tradition and style that Kahn would surely applaud.
Stuart Rabinowitz Hofstra University President
Nobody embodies Hofstra University like Stuart Rabinowitz. He was dean of Hofstra’s law school when the board of trustees chose him in 2001 to become the eighth president of LI’s largest private college. Nassau County can also rely on him as someone with a vested interest in whatever future the Nassau Hub holds. Rabinowitz has been a central figure in re-imagining Long Island; after all, the key to our collective success can be found in the students that walk through the halls of his institution. To wit, when NY Governor Andrew Cuomo assembled a group of leaders to represent LI in the application for major grant funding, it was Rabinowitz who led the committee. Hosting the second 2012 presidential debate certainly put Hofstra—and LI—on the national map, especially in a forum that let Long Islanders speak their minds to the men who would shape their lives. His most recent, and very ambitious project is the Hofstra-North Shore LIJ School of Medicine. When all is said and done, Rabinowitz has proven that the value of a liberal arts education lasts a lifetime.
Peter Schmitt
RXR Realty CEO
Scott Rechler’s reach extends far beyond his Uniondale-based office of RXR Realty. Thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s appointment, Rechler is the vice chair on the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In Manhattan his firm closed on the $920-million acquisition of the StarrettLehigh building with a fabulous view of the Hudson River, acquired 450 Lexington Avenue and took control over 75 Rockefeller Plaza, to name a few trophies. In Glen Cove, his company is hard at work redeveloping the prime waterfront sites in the Glen Isle project. With more than $6 billion in assets under RXR’s purview and some 19 million square feet, Rechler could rightly be considered Long Island’s reigning king of real estate. He’s also involved with the Long Island Children’s Museum and the Association for a Better Long Island, a key lobbying group. Rechler is a man to be reckoned with.
Desmond Ryan
Nassau County’s Late Presiding Officer
No doubt it would amuse Peter Schmitt immensely that a 423-acre nature preserve in Massapequa will forever honor his name. As supporters and opponents knew well, Schmitt was most at home in the rough and tumble world of Nassau politics, giving as good as he got in Mineola’s corridors of power. He may have found time to hike the Greenbelt Trail, but he got his exercise mostly on behalf of the Nassau Republican Party, and nothing gave him a better workout than Democratic legislators’ attempts to raise taxes or block his spending cuts. The Nassau Legislature will never be the same without his quick wit, biting satire and acerbic barbs. Schmitt, the original member of the 17-year-old body, was its presiding officer since 2009. We will truly miss him.
Scott Rechler
Association for a Better Long Island Executive Director
Caricatures by Norman Sonne Faces by Norm www.gardensidegraphics.com
Desmond Ryan—or Des, as he’s known in the political circles of Albany, D.C., and the rest of the solar system, for all we know—is an outspoken advocate for the best of Long Island, not just its betterment. Elected officials have learned to ignore his counsel at their peril. Of course, it helps that he’s carrying water for several of the most influential developers in our region, but nobody is more willing to take on the battle against short-sighted NIMBYism. He’s a proponent of growth and economic development, two key factors without which LI will perish. And that’s no bull. Ryan isn’t one to mince words, and given his long tenure at the nexus of politics and policy, he has the experience to make a difference and the influence to get the job done. Oh, he may be more comfortable working behind the scenes when it suits him, but he’s not afraid to stand up and speak out when silence is not an option.
2 0 1 3 L o n g I s l a n d P r e s s P ow e r L i s t / / / w w w. l o n g i s l a n d p r e s s . c o m / p ow e r l i s t
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