Community mourns Brookhaven Town Councilman Keith Romaine

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Suffolk County Legislator Edward P. Romaine and his wife, Diane, following the funeral of Mr. Romaine's son, Brookhaven Councilman Keith Romaine.
Photo by Rohma Abbas

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Thousands of mourners turned out this week to pay their last respects to the family of Brookhaven Town Councilman Keith Romaine of Moriches, who died Saturday morning at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola from heart failure following complications from pneumonia. He was 36.

A funeral service was held for Mr. Romaine at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday. He was interred at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery following the Catholic Mass.

“Keith was a cool guy. He liked to laugh, he loved his family, he was a public servant and a good son of the church,” said Father Todd Saccoccia, who presided over the funeral at St. John’s on Wednesday. “We lost one of our finest, so Gen Xers, you have to step up.”

Rev. Saccoccia finished his sermon by asking Mr. Romaine to “tickle the clouds” and send more people like him to earth.

According to family members, Mr. Romaine, who was feeling run down in recent weeks leading up to and following his reelection to the Brookhaven Town Board on November 3, was diagnosed with two forms of pneumonia, viral and bacterial. Mr. Romaine’s close friend and campaign manager, Dan Panico of Manorville, said the viral infection attacked and weakened the councilman’s heart.

Mr. Romaine was admitted to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead last Thursday, November 12, after he complained of having trouble breathing and chest pains. He was transferred to Winthrop on Friday in critical condition, according to his family.

Mr. Romaine suffered several cardiac arrests on Friday and Saturday. Doctors managed to revive the councilman’s heart each time but ultimately could not save his life, according to Mr. Panico.

Mr. Romaine died shortly after 11 a.m. on Saturday after his heart failed for a final time. He died in the same hospital in which he was born 36 years earlier.

His father, Suffolk County Legislator Edward P. Romaine, was with his son at the time of his death. The elder Mr. Romaine was composed and cordial as he greeted throngs of friends and acquaintances of the late councilman at Sinnicksons Moriches Funeral Home in Center Moriches on Monday and Tuesday. A line of mourners stretched several blocks from the funeral home on Monday and Tuesday night.

Mr. Panico said that roughly 3,000 people turned out to pay their respects to Mr. Romaine.

“The fact that thousands of people turned out for his services is clear testament to the amount of good that he did,” Mr. Panico said Wednesday afternoon, noting that all the flowers and photos displayed at Mr. Romaine’s wake have been placed in Mr. Romaine’s headquarters in the King Kullen shopping center in Center Moriches.

Roughly 300 people turned out for services on Wednesday. Uniformed fire department members from six departments in Mr. Romaine’s district also paid their last respects. Three large American flags held aloft by fire truck ladders graced Montauk Highway from St. John’s to Mt. Pleasant. Suffolk County Police officers also lined the street.

With his wife Diane on his arm, a reserved Legislator Romaine watched stoically as his son’s casket was removed from St. John’s and taken to his grave site at Mt. Pleasant.

Councilman Romaine’s personal assistant and close friend, Lori Anne De lulio Casdia, said Mr. Romaine’s father was devastated by the loss of his son and was unavailable for comment.

Mr. Panico remembered his friend as not only a dedicated public servant, but as a positive influence on the people around him.

“Keith not only fought for what he believed in, he loved to laugh,” Mr. Panico said. “He had a good personality, and he was a gentleman. He was even a better person than people give him credit for.”

Mr. Romaine had just been elected to his second term on the Brookhaven Town Board on November 3. He was first elected to the board in November 2007. A special election will be conducted in coming months to replace him.

A graduate of Fordham University in The Bronx, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance, and Touro Law School in Central Islip, Mr. Romaine was also the owner of a small company, Suffolk Legal and Process Service LLC, which he started in 2000. He was a former president of the Moriches Bay Civic Association and a columnist for The Press of Manorville and The Moriches from the newspaper’s launch in 2002 until he was first elected to the Town Board.

In his freshman term as councilman, Mr. Romaine secured more than $10 million for projects within the 6th Council District, which included helping to orchestrate the building of a skateboard park in Mastic, coordinating a $1.1 million restoration project along Neighborhood Road in Mastic Beach and forcing the closing of the town’s commercial compost operation in Manorville. He was also working to secure a donation of 10 acres in Eastport for much needed ballparks in the area, and helped to obtain sizeable grants for a recently formed beautification committee in Center Moriches.