George Hohenstein, Navy vet and retired NYPD homicide detective from Hauppauge, dies at 79

Most of the stories — the ones about the murderers and murder investigations, about the suspects and arrestees — never came home with George Hohenstein to his   Hauppauge house and his family.  He was an NYPD cop, an old-school cop, which meant a lot of things that happened while on duty he thought were best left unspoken, his family said.

Bringing the girls a carnation every Valentine's Day when they were younger, along with a box of chocolates left on their pillows. That was how he did it. Maybe a day out fishing. Maybe a vacation drive in the family car.

No nonsense. Few frills. Work hard. That's who he was.

"Soft side?" daughter Kim Mochi recalled this week. "Oh, no. Not until we became adults. He was so strict, I guess because of what he saw at work. ... But, I have to say, he became an awesome grandfather. He could be very generous — and fun."

George A. Hohenstein died May 27 at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook surrounded by family, including ex-wife Helene, after suffering post-operative pneumonia on top of complications from Alzheimer's and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 79.

"He took immense pride in his work," daughter Jennifer Meschi said. "I know it's where I got my work ethic from. But he was a very private man; he didn't talk much about what he did, especially since he was in homicide. He wanted to leave it there, wanted to just come home, be a dad."

Born Nov. 15, 1946, in Jackson Heights, Queens, Hohenstein was the second of two sons Marie and Francis Hohenstein raised in Ridgewood. He attended St. Aloysius and later Grover Cleveland High School, leaving before graduation to follow his brother, Frank, into the military at age 17.

While his brother served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, George Hohenstein served as a U.S. Navy seaman aboard the destroyer-tender USS Sierra.

Joined NYPD after U.S. Navy

He met Helene Dachtler on a double date in Ridgewood, married her in 1968, had daughter Kim in 1969 and left the Navy in 1970, the same year daughter Kelley was born. Fresh out of the service, Hohenstein joined the NYPD, walked a beat in Canarsie, Brooklyn, then transferred to the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn, where he spent most of his career in homicide, becoming a detective sergeant.

In the 1980s and '90s, the 75th was one of the toughest precincts in all of New York City.  

An August 1994 story in The New York Times described how Hohenstein and fellow detectives chased suspects up a stairwell at the Cypress Hills Houses in East New York, getting into a 1 a.m. shootout on a fifth-floor landing.

The account said the cops had been tracking a 17-year-old suspect for nine months, and while one detective grazed by gunfire was treated at Jamaica Hospital, Hohenstein and three others located the teen pretending to be in bed asleep, arresting him with guns drawn.

A matter-of-fact Hohenstein told the Times: "He looks up. We said, 'Keep your hands visible.' We stood him up, cuffed him, and that was it."

It was a story, daughter Kim said, she'd never heard until this week.

"He did a lot of things he never spoke about," she said. "He just thought it was better to keep us shielded from things."

Empire State College grad

Hohenstein got his GED diploma while in the Navy, later graduating from Empire State College. In addition to his work with the NYPD, he served 33 years as a reservist in the U.S. National Guard, was an active member of the Smithtown Veterans of Foreign Wars and helped fundraise for cancer research with Cruisin' for a Cure.

Following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Hohenstein spent weeks at Ground Zero.

This week, family members recalled how Hohenstein liked to dress up for Halloween — one year Helene was Popeye, George was Olive Oyl; another, the two were Peter Pan and Captain Hook — and also how he loved Christmas parties and police barbecues.

"He hated the beach, hated sand," recalled son-in-law Arthur Mochi Jr., executive producer at NewsdayTV. "He wore combat boots to the beach. I have a pool and he never once went in the water. ... But, he was generous to a fault, always willing to help."

Hohenstein arranged for his body to be donated to the medical school at Stony Brook University.

He is survived by daughter Kim and her husband, Arthur, their children, Gianna and Artie, of Holbrook; daughter Kelley Kwasnik and her husband, Chris Kwasnik, and their children, Emily and Cameron, of Commack; daughter Jennifer, her husband, Rich, and their twins, Abby and Lily, of Stony Brook; and son George Jr., of Sayville. A memorial will be held at the Branch Funeral Home in Smithtown on Saturday, from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., with a memorial Mass at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Setauket on Monday at 10:45 a.m.