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Edward Beedenbender, 81, former NYPD officer, dies

BY CARL MACGOWAN | carl.macgowan@newsday.com

December 31, 2008

Edward Beedenbender of Calverton was an old-fashioned man with a preference for double-knotted ties and a tendency to chat up bank and supermarket employees, said his grandson, Suffolk Legis. Brian Beedenbender.

"He knew everybody by their first names and what their story was," Beedenbender said. "Everybody knew that Mr. B was coming in."

The elder Beedenbender, a veteran of two wars who walked a police beat in Harlem, died yesterday at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, two days after suffering a heart attack. He was 81. Beedenbender served as a Navy targeting officer during World War II and the Korean War, Brian Beedenbender said.

"He was the stereotypical American male of his generation," he said.

Beedenbender was born in 1927 and raised in Manhattan by his parents, Julius and Jane Beedenbender. His values were shaped by the Depression, Brian Beedenbender said.

"All he wanted was for his kids and his grandkids to have more than he did," he said.

He was a New York City beat cop for 20 years before retiring in 1972. Once, during a snowstorm, he walked from Uniondale to Jamaica to catch a subway train into Manhattan.

As a foot patrolman in 1965, Beedenbender helped take Malcolm X to a hospital after the black leader was shot to death in Washington Heights, his grandson said.

Beedenbender, a member of the Robert W. Powell Council, Knights of Columbus, in Uniondale, was a security guard at Mercy Medical Center in Freeport after he retired. Brian Beedenbender recalled watching his grandfather shining his shoes and using a Windsor knot on his ties.

"I once asked why he was dressing up to go somewhere, and he said, 'Because I'm your grandfather, and I'm dressing up,'" Beedenbender said.

Beedenbender is also survived by his wife, Kathleen; a son, Edward Beedenbender of Selden; a daughter, Beth Ann Cornacchio of Baiting Hollow, and three grandchildren.

Viewing hours are 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. today at Tuthill Funeral Home in Wading River. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Isidore Church in Riverhead. Burial will follow at Calverton National Cemetery.