Serving Roslyn, East Hills, Roslyn Estates, Roslyn Harbor, Roslyn Heights, Greenvale, Old Westbury and North Hills
$1
Friday, December 24, 2021
Vol. 9, No. 52
NEW YEAR’S DINING GUIDE PAGES 23-26
KANAS RESIGNS AS EWSD SUPERINTENDENT
COVID CASES CLIMB
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Leo Liebowitz, business exec, dies at 94 Longtime Sands Point resident founded, served as chairman of Getty Realty Co. BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z Former Getty Realty Corp. Chairman and co-founder Leo Liebowitz of Sands Point died from the coronavirus on Sunday at 94. Liebowitz, who also served as Getty’s chief executive officer from 1985 to 2010, was born on Sept. 28, 1927, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. With a longstanding passion for automobiles, Liebowitz rebuilt and resold vehicles before he could even drive. He graduated from New Utrecht High School before enlisting in the Air Force at Eglin Field in Florida and later working as a weatherman. He received the Victory Medal as a result of his service. After becoming more involved as a mechanic, Liebowitz became a passenger bus maintenance worker for New York City. In 1955, Liebowitz and workshop partner Milton Safenowitz secured a franchise location of the Sunoco Oil Corp.
Sixteen years and a handful of other acquisitions later, including Power Test Corp., the team of Liebowitz and Safenowitz or, “LeeMilts,” continued to grow the company into the largest independent gasoline distributor on the East Coast. In 1985, Liebowitz secured all of Getty Oil Co.’s gasoline stations and terminals throughout the Northeast. Liebowitz ultimately sold the public company, Getty Petroleum Marketing, to Lukoil in 2000 for $71 million. According to Newsday, Liebowitz used the payday to fund construction of a boat, one of his other passions in life. All of the boats Liebowitz owned throughout his life went by the name of ‘MITseaAH’, including a 156-foot high-speed motorsailer frequently seen around Manhasset Bay in the summer. Now, according to its website, Getty Realty “owns and leases a Continued on Page 35
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ROSLYN LANDMARK SOCIETY
The deed to the Mackay Estate Gate Lodge was transferred to the Village of East Hills earlier this month.
Mackay Estate lodge transferred to E. Hills BY B R A N D ON DUFFY
village earlier this month, according to village officials. Designed in 1899 by SanThe Mackay Estate Gate ford White, part of the promiLodge in East Hills, a historical nent McKim, Mead and White structure completed in 1902, architectural firm, the gate had its deed transferred to the lodge represented the entrance
to Clarence Mackay’s Harbor Hill estate. The estate was active until Mackay’s death in 1937. The only remnants of the estate’s 648-acre property are the gate Continued on Page 34
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