Community mourns Brookhaven Town Councilman Keith Romaine

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.

Many people at Mr. Romaine’s wake on Monday shared thoughts and memories of the public servant as a kind patriot, who genuinely cared about the community in which he served. The councilman was known for participating in numerous public events in his district.

Jane Koropsak, who served with Mr. Romaine on the Moriches Bay Civic Association, said she and her late husband, Ed, met Mr. Romaine in 2004. She credited the councilman not only with introducing her to a world of public service, but with being a caring friend after the death of her husband.

“Our friendship was tied in a bow that would never unravel,” Ms. Koropsak said with tears welling in her eyes at the funeral home. “He would call me all the time to check on me and to see if I was okay. We had a lot of laughs, and he would call me and say, ‘It’s Keith, are you okay? Where are you? Do you need anything? Call me back.’ That’s just the kind of guy he was.”

Former Chamber of the Commerce of the Moriches President Art Gerhauser noted that Mr. Romaine was involved with numerous chamber events and local fund-raisers. One of Mr. Romaine’s favorite charities was the Center Moriches Relay for Life, in which teams of people walk the track of the Center Moriches High School to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

One summer night during the Relay for Life, Mr. Gerhauser said he made the mistake of challenging Mr. Romaine to several rounds of chess. “He beat me in each game,” Mr. Gerhauser chuckled. “And beat me soundly.”

Ms. Casdia also spoke of Mr. Romaine’s softer side, noting that the young, single politician had hopes of one day marrying and being a father—a desire that often presented itself during his favorite time of year, autumn.

“He enjoyed the changing of the leaves and loved Halloween,” Ms. Casdia said fondly, nothing that Mr. Romaine always showed up for the March of the Goblins, an annual event in Center Moriches in which children dress up for Halloween and collect treats along Main Street.

The councilman also created an annual Halloween party at the Mastic Beach Property Owners Association clubhouse shortly after he was first elected.

“There were two sessions and 300 children that came, and they had face painting, decorated cookies and they would come in costume. There would be prizes for the costumes. They’d get a goodie bag stuffed with candy and their own pumpkin,” Ms. Casdia said, recalling that one little girl had come to thank Mr. Romaine for the pumpkin, which she was hugging in her arms.

“She said, ‘Thank you, I’ve never had a pumpkin before,’ and I watched him turn into the biggest moosh I’d ever seen. His eyes welled up and he was so proud that he could make that little girl so happy ... That was the man he didn’t let a lot of people see, because he was being the statesman and he was being the leader and trying to be strong for everyone.”

Ms. Casdia and Mr. Panico both noted that Mr. Romaine had a strong commitment to his community. Mr. Panico felt that it was that commitment that may have exacerbated Mr. Romaine’s ill health.

He pointed out that the councilman had been sick and feeling tired during the recent campaign, but refused to slow down.

“I was with him during the campaign,” Mr. Panico said. “We were driving around all night and he was run down, but he wouldn’t stop. He wanted to win the election.”

Ms. Casdia noted that Mr. Romaine, despite having a fever of 102 degrees, also refused to leave a Town Council meeting last Tuesday night. Mr. Panico said Mr. Romaine was having trouble sleeping recently because of fluid in his lungs. His condition deteriorated quickly by the end of last week.

“He was walking around feeling a little sick,” Mr. Panico said. “He was doing his campaign fund-raising thank-you letters on Thursday, and by Saturday at 11 a.m., he was gone.”

In addition to his father, Mr. Romaine is also survived by his brother, Kevin Romaine of Manorville; his uncle John Romaine of Maryland; his grandfather Edward T. Romaine; his aunt Maureen McGovern of Freeport; and his uncle Neil McGovern of New York.