My brother, Michael Joseph Horton (Mike) was born in South Side Hospital in Bay Shore on October 6, 1958. He was the fourth child of Virginia and Terry Horton. In the early 1950s, they lived in Oakleyville, a small hamlet east of Point O’ Woods. They later built a house and moved to Ocean Bay Park in 1954.
Our dad was a ferry captain and boat carpenter, a plumber and carpenter for Fred Brooks of Ocean Beach, a self-employed plumber and carpenter, and later a carpenter and Head of Maintenance for the Point O’ Woods Association. Our mom, Virginia, was from Yonkers, NY, and came to Fire Island in 1947 with her music teacher as a mother’s helper, where she met our dad. They married when he returned from the Navy.
Mom cleaned houses, worked as a clerk at the markets, became the Fire Island School District Treasurer, and worked part-time at the OB Post Office until she was given the position of Postmaster. She played the organ at Our Lady of the Magnificat Catholic Church in OB for 60 years. When Mike was born, the family lived on Seneca Street in Ocean Bay Park, where my mother, at age 95, still resides.
Growing up on Fire Island as a full-time resident before the Robert Moses Bridge was constructed was completely different from today. You rarely went off the island during winter because of the limited ferry service and because traveling to the Smith’s Point bridge on the east end of Fire Island by Jeep was long and difficult, particularly in winter.
Mike and I occupied ourselves with fixing up old bikes with parts from the dump, getting old generator engines and abandoned Model A Fords out of the woods at Oakleyville, and getting them running and driving again, to everyone’s amazement. We spent countless hours at the Oakleyville property rummaging through our grandfather’s shed, building forts from our dad’s abandoned chicken coupes and rabbit pens and old trucks he parked on the hill behind his house before he went into the Navy.
Mike and I joined the Ocean Bay Park Volunteer Fire Department in 1975 on the same day. Mike was 17, I was 18. He was always active and dedicated to the OBPFD and the OBP community, plowing snow in winter and piling sandbags when a storm was approaching.
Besides his mechanical abilities, Mike was an excellent equipment operator. Over the years, Mike has been a carpenter, auto mechanic, and real estate agent. He was elected Commissioner of the OBP/Seaview Garbage District, then Chief of the OBPFD for an unprecedented 32 years of his 49 years of service.
Mike was a cool-headed, calm leader. He was known island-wide for his leadership and ability to quickly answer alarms in communities, particularly to the east, during the months when they were short-handed. He was also an excellent cook, which he demonstrated at our annual fire department spaghetti dinners and other events.
In 2018, Mike was given four months to live due to his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, but he refused to give in to the disease. He did countless chemo treatments, radiation, and experimental treatments and drove himself to and from each one, all while also answering fire calls in between.
He never complained about the pain. As the fire service says, “Chief Mike answered his last alarm” on August 16, 2024, at his home on Seneca St. in Ocean Bay Park. He is survived by his mother, wife Juanita, three brothers, two sisters, 10 nephews and nieces, and 13 grandnieces and nieces. He is pre-deceased by his father, oldest brother, and one niece.
His contribution and volunteer spirit to Ocean Bay Park and Fire Island may never be matched.
