Gerald Regan Gerald Regan, a 26-year resident of Garden City and brother of former Mayor Raymond L. Regan, died June 4 at Winthrop Hospital after a short illness. Jerry, as his many friends and colleagues knew him, was 86 years old. In his final years he and his son, Gerry, were regulars on Tuesdays for dinner at Leo's. He is survived by his son, a resident of Astoria, Queens; a daughter, Patricia De Teso, of Naples, Fla.; a grandson, Joseph Garofolo, of Bayport, N.Y., granddaughters Danielle and Samantha De Teso, of Naples; granddaughter Kim Langerman, and great-grandchildren Kevin and Robert Langerman, all of Patchogue, N.Y. His wife of 63 years, Evelyn, died in February 2004. His daughter Laura died in 1989.

Jerry moved to Harrison Street in the village in 1981 after 28 years in New Hyde Park, where he raised his family. His parents, Raymond V. and Sue Regan, had moved to Garden City from Richmond Hill, Queens, moving to 144 Tanners Pond Road, in 1950. Raymond V. Regan died of a massive coronary at the Garden City Country Club in 1966. Mr. Regan's brother, Ray, followed their father to Garden City, to a home on Hathaway Drive, along with Ray's wife, Marion, and the first five of their eight children. Ray served the village for many years, with the Western Property Owners' Association, as well as the library board, village board and a stint as village mayor from 1973-75. Ray died in 1986, and is memorialized with a plaque in Nassau Haven Park.

Son Jerry and Gerald Regan at Steppingstone Park in Great Neck The extended Regan family was part of a wave of migration to Garden City from Queens that began in the 1950s that included Jerry's dear friends, Frank and Lorraine Alonge, and Hall of Fame boxing referee Arthur Mercante, and his wife, Gloria, who until recently lived on Wickham Road. Jerry and Arthur met in 1944 while both were stationed in the physical training program at St. Alban's (Queens) Naval Hospital, and they remained staunch friends. Jerry served in the pre-war Army and then three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

After the war, Jerry forged a distinguished 45-year career in the brewing industry, working for Trommers Brewery, Ballantine Breweries, Rheingold Breweries, and Van Munching & Co., and later owning and directing Amstel American Co. The pinnacle of his career was his creation and 15-year leadership of Martlet Importing Co. By the time of his 1985 retirement from Martlet, he had built a team that transformed the previously obscure Molson Canadian Beer and Ale into the second largest selling imported beer in the U.S.

Jerry Regan at his First Communion in 1928 Born May 24, 1921, in the Bronx, Jerry liked to keep people guessing about his age, an artifice that served him well in an industry that put a growing premium on youth. Fortunately, always fit, he looked many years younger than his age. He grew up in Richmond Hill, and graduated from John Adams High School in Queens in 1939, lettering in football and track.

Jerry was a parishioner of St. Anne's, and even though he walked with considerable difficulty since a stroke in 1997, he frequently struggled into Mass, the last few years with the help of his son. He was waked at Fairchild Brothers Funeral Home in a closed casket, with a portrait alongside of himself at age 8, in his First Holy Communion suit. It was, he noted with his trademark humor, how he preferred to be remembered.