Leon Gimpel Passes Away
Leon Gimpel, a former Huntington School District teacher and administrator who played a role in the construction of Huntington Elementary School, passed away earlier this month. He was 91 and had been residing in Spring Hill, Florida.
Mr. Gimpel, who was affectionately known as "Honey" by many colleagues, came to Huntington as a physical education teacher in September 1947. That first year he taught on the elementary level and coached junior varsity basketball and football. He moved to Robert K. Toaz Junior High School in September 1948 and continued teaching PE at Toaz through the 1954/55 school year. In September 1955 he began teaching math at Toaz and became the school's assistant principal on October 6, 1959, a post he held until March 1966 was he was named Huntington's director of federal and special projects. He remained in this position until his retirement on April 1, 1974.
In his final position, Mr. Gimbel coordinated funding for the construction of a replacement building for Roosevelt Elementary School, which stood on three acres of land on Lowndes Avenue and School Street. The area was within the federal Urban Renewal Project zone. The district closed Roosevelt in January 1967 and it was ultimately razed. The capacity of Roosevelt was about 350 students. The district wanted a new school built to house 1,000 pupils.
Mr. Gimbel worked with the Urban Renewal Agency to clear homes near the Roosevelt site in order to provide for 13 acres of open land on which Huntington Elementary School was erected. "He was well liked," said Alfred DiGiacomo, the architect who designed Huntington and helped supervise its construction.
The construction of Huntington Elementary School allowed the district to close Lincoln and Woodbury Avenue Elementary Schools, in addition to the demolition of Roosevelt.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Mr. Gimpel grew up in Spring Valley, New York, where he attended elementary and secondary school. He studied at Rutgers University and New York University until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. He served in the United States Air Force from December 1941 through February 1946. He later earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at NYU.
Prior to coming to Huntington, Mr. Gimpel taught physical education classes for a one year period in Greenlawn (as the Harborfields elementary district was then called), Commack, Cold Spring Harbor and Deer Park.
During his years in the Huntington School District, Mr. Gimpel was an unabashedly proud resident of Huntington Station. He lived in a home located at 11 Stratton Drive.