Funeral director John Lieblang dies at 86

John Lieblang, a former funeral director who helped start Long Island's first program to train morticians, died Friday from congestive heart failure. He was 86.

Lieblang, of Amityville, died at Our Lady of Consolation Nursing & Rehabilitative Care Center in West Islip.

In 1970, Lieblang helped to found the mortuary sciences program at the Agricultural and Technical College at Farmingdale, now Farmingdale State College.

Lieblang helped to move the program in the 1990s to Nassau Community College.

Before the Farmingdale program, aspiring morticians had to go to school in Manhattan, said Michael Mastellone, who succeeded Lieblang as chairman of the program at Nassau Community College.

"He definitely saw a need on Long Island," Mastellone said.

Lieblang was born on April 2, 1925, in Amityville, and was a Suffolk County high school wrestling champion, his family said. He served in the Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946.

In 1949, Lieblang married the former Virginia Barry, with whom he raised 10 children.

Before becoming a funeral director, Lieblang had run his family's hardware store in Amityville and was employed by Grumman, his family said.

After graduating from the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service in Manhattan, he became a partner at Powell & Lieblang Funeral Home in Amityville, now Powell Funeral Home. He left in the 1970s.

Lieblang's daughter, Gail Lieblang, of Wake Forest, N.C., said her father's influence was widespread.

"Everywhere I would go, I would meet someone and it would be like, 'Wait a minute. Lieblang? Are you John Lieblang's daughter?' " she said.

In addition to his daughter Gail and his wife, Lieblang is survived by two sons, John and Dean, both of Amityville; five other daughters, Virginia Deucher, of Bristol, Maine, Donna Lieblang, of Ashton, Md., Grace Lieblang, of Commack, and Dawn Lieblang and Mary Jane Lieblang, both of Gainesville, Ga.; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Viewing hours are 1 to 4:30 p.m. and 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, at Powell Funeral Home in Amityville.

A funeral Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Martin Of Tours Roman Catholic Church in Amityville. Interment will follow at Trinity Cemetery in Amityville.