Memorial ceremony honors fallen Nassau police officers

Nassau Police Officer Mark Kellerman was considered one of the most respected cops in the Third Precinct, recognized repeatedly for his heroics on patrol.

But at home in Coram, Kellerman was a boisterous, joke-cracking father of three teenage girls who kept the family together when his wife, Wendy, died from cancer one year earlier.

In October, the family endured yet another tragedy as Mark Kellerman, the family patriarch and a 17-year veteran of the department, succumbed to COVID-19.

"He was an amazing man. Such a people pleaser," Caleigh Kellerman said of her father Wednesday during the department's annual memorial ceremony for fallen officers. "He just wanted to do everything for everybody. He'd take a bullet for anybody. He was the light of the family."

The somber ceremony, held on the front lawn of the department's Mineola headquarters, was filled with police pageantry.

The Emerald Society Pipe Band played "Amazing Grace," while a bugler performed taps as a police helicopter rumbled overhead. Wreaths and floral tributes were placed in front of the police memorial, which has grown from a rock monument in 1982 to include six tall slabs of black concrete, with the facial etchings of 40 officers who have died in the line of duty since 1925 cast onto bronze plaques.

The names of six active officers or civilians, who died from COVID or a Sept. 11-related cancer, along with 80 department retirees who died in the past 12 months, were read aloud.

Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said the fallen officers sacrificed their lives for complete strangers, and would do it again without hesitation.

"We understand the risk and we know what we signed up for, whether we're fighting criminals or an invisible virus," said Ryder, noting that five more names will be added to the memorial wall next year. "Those 40 heroes knew the risks and proudly served this department and the people of Nassau County."

County Executive Bruce Blakeman said every name on the memorial wall had a story and left a heartbroken family behind. Those officers, he said, saved drowning children, delivered babies and rescued homeowners from fires.

"Someone on that wall made an arrest that made us a safer community and therefore saved lives," he said. "Someone on that wall broke up a crime while it was in action. Everybody on that wall gave their all."

Emma Perlungher, of Wantagh, said she found comfort in the sea of blue uniforms who took time to remember those who sacrificed their lives for the job. 

Perlungher's father, Officer Matthew Perlungher, died in August after a four-month battle with cancer, an illness linked to the toxic dust and air in lower Manhattan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"It means everything to me," she said of the show of support. " … Having that blue and orange family [at] your side means you're not alone."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.