Betty Tiska, decades-long volunteer, Syosset Public Library illustrator, dies at 90

The sun on her face, the joy of sailing in her words, Betty Tiska volunteered for decades as a crew member and speaker on the Christeen, the 1883 oyster sloop she helped rebuild as a floating classroom, her family said.

Volunteering was among life’s adventures for the career illustrator, those how knew her said. She ladled out dinners at a winter shelter program for men. After her daughter introduced her to a running club, she got kudos for working at the races. She donated her time to WLIW's on-air fundraising events and read Bible passages from her church’s pulpit.

Tiska liked the camaraderie of teamwork and being a part of different communities, her children said.

"It definitely gave her a sense of purpose," said her son, Carl Tiska, of Newport, Rhode Island. "She just loved meeting people, maintaining friendships — very much a life of service and personal relationships."

Tiska, of Syosset, died at age 90 on Jan. 23.

In a life full of adventure, she was the only female draftsperson at Sperry Gyroscope Corp. in Lake Success in the 1950s, succeeding in a male-dominated industry of engineers and planes, her family said.

"She did technical illustrations," said daughter Dale Tiska, of Raleigh, North Carolina. "She did a lot of electrical diagrams. She would talk about how she would get deep into the planes and trace all the wiring and go back to her desk and draw it."

She met her husband at Sperry, engineer Henry Tiska Jr. Both were into nature, recycling, boating, books and coaching sports. They married in 1960 and had two children.

Library gig starts in 1969

After leaving Sperry in the mid 1960s, she freelanced as an illustrator. She began her longest gig in 1969 for Syosset Public Library, where her artwork filled posters, newsletters and flyers for 49 years.

If she favored themes for her art, it might be whimsy. When Carl was born, she drew a bare-bummed, smiling baby on her version of a birth certificate, titled "Tiska Heircraft Corporation." His weight was described as "less than T1 model to allow for additional operating equipment."

As a girl, Betty absorbed technical skills from both sides of the family, her daughter said. For example, her father was a roadway engineer for New York City and her grandfather was a structural engineer who built the city’s bridges. When she was a child, she’d accompany relatives to their jobs sites and trips, from skyscrapers to a tobacco barn.

Tiska was adventurous even in her later decades, her family said. For her 70th birthday, she jumped out of a plane for a tandem parachute ride. A few birthdays later she took a joyride in a fighter jet used for training. In her 80s, she hopped into a basket for a hot-air balloon journey, a Christmas gift from her children.

Always on the go

"She was on the go all the time," said her husband, of Syosset. "She didn’t like to stand around and that’s why she volunteered all the time."

She was a "consummate volunteer" at every task during 25 years of races with the Greater Long Island Running Club, said Mike Polansky, the group’s former president.

"Whatever we asked her to do, she did," he said. "She always had a smile on her face. She was happy about everything, and everybody related to her because of that."

She may have had no greater volunteer love than Christeen, the historic, 60-foot vessel at The Waterfront Center, an educational and recreational nonprofit in Oyster Bay. From the very start of the sloop’s restoration in 1992, Tiska and her husband organized fundraisers, refitted her, painted her and help sail her into the waters that Tiska had known since childhood. She served on the board of the Christeen Oyster Sloop Preservation Corp.

"There was certainly a strong bond there," said Rob Crafa, a board member at the nonprofit.

As a Christeen crew member, Tiska appreciated those who had the means to sail but bonded especially with the person who for the first time got to go on the sloop’s educational tours, he said: "She fed off the energy of sharing and getting people out on the water and their excitement. ... She had an indomitable spirit."

Services were private.