_________________ BALDWIN ________________
HERALD st. Christopher’s annual feast
sinkholes across the county
Eli Young concert in East Meadow
Page 5
Page 10
Page 17
Vol. 30 No. 32
august 3 - 9, 2023
$1.00
Baldwin man lives with rare disorder By BEN FIEBERt bfiebert@liherald.com
Courtesy Lisa Markus
Last October, Irwin Markus, of Baldwin, accidentally took the wrong Long Island Rail Road train, and ended up in East Rockaway. He called his ex-wife, Lisa Markus, because he couldn’t figure out how to get back home. The frightening experience led Lisa to become concerned about Irwin’s cognitive ability, so she scheduled a doctor’s appointment. A month later, after several visits to a neurologist, Irwin, 58, was diag-
Irwin Markus, left, with his children, Connor, Jenna and Mathew, before he suffered rapid cognitive decline late last year.
ContInued on page 11
OBITUARY
Laura Gillen remembers the life of her father, William Gillen By BEN FIEBERt bfiebert@liherald.com
After William Gillen died at age 84 on June 29, his daughter, for mer Town of Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen, recalled a father who put his family first. He was always protective of her, she said, and they were very close. He was always there for her. “He loved to have fun and loved to joke around,” Laura Gillen said. “He was always present.” William Gillen, who grew up
on to serve in the on Glover Place in reserves and enroll Baldwin, was a forat Hofstra Universimer regional compty, where he was a troller for Xerox’s catcher on the baseLong Island operaball team. Before the tions. The youngest Brooklyn Dodgers of four siblings, he left New York for was born on July 13, L o s A n g e l e s, h e 1938, to Thomas and tried out for their Ann Gillen. farm team. After graduating “My mother from St. Agnes always told me a Cathedral High WIllIaM s t o r y ab o u t h ow School in 1956, GilgIllEN when my dad was len joined the younger, he used to Marines in Paris Island, South Carolina. He went ride a motorcycle and he used
to be a skier, so he did all these risky things,” Laura Gillen recalled. “But when my dad was driving my mom and I home from the hospital after I was born, he was driving one mile per hour.” She said she has never heard members of a family say “I love
you” as often as hers did. William was there for all of his children’s sports events, and according to Laura, he made sacrifices so he could be involved in their lives. One of those sacrifices involved his career. Gillen rapContInued on page 18