James J. Duffy Sr., Island labor leader, dead at 84

James Joseph Duffy Sr., one of the most powerful labor leaders in Long Island history and a man who helped drive some of the region's most critical building projects, died Thursday at his home in East Setauket of a lung infection. He was 84.

During his long association with the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 138 - which he joined in 1947 and for which he was president and business manager in the 1970s and 80s - Duffy and his membership helped make modern Long Island, friends and family said.

Segments of the Long Island Expressway, the Robert Moses Causeway, the Southwest Sewer District and the Shoreham nuclear power plant all bear Duffy's imprint, they said.

"He is a legend in the construction industry," said Marc Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors' Association. "He may be a person that most Long Islanders aren't familiar with, but he's responsible for most of the major infrastructure on Long Island that they use on a daily basis."

Duffy was born in Rockville Centre to Irish immigrant parents and worked as a teenager as a Jones Beach lifeguard. Without his parents' knowledge, he joined the Navy at 16, and served during World War II, said his son William Duffy. After his service, Duffy said his father played guard for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1945 and '46.

"That's when you would go in and practice on a Friday and get paid $70 to go kill yourself on Sundays," said William Duffy, 62, of Naples, Fla. "It was the good old days."

Duffy said his father - who also served as president of the New York State Conference of Operating Engineers and the vice president of the New York State AFL-CIO - believed strongly that the labor movement could aid the children of the working-class, allowing them to pursue careers as doctors and lawyers.

Hofstra University offers an annual athletic scholarship in his father's name, Duffy said, and this year Local 138 will endow another Duffy scholarship that will pay for a student's tuition at a state university.

"That was one of the major things in his life," William Duffy said, "to be able to educate the working man's children."

Family members said he loved golfing and to watch his grandchildren play sports and that he took joy in animals, especially dogs. Though tough and formidable, Duffy was a caring man, said his grandson, Billy Duffy, 38, of East Quogue.

"He would do anything for anybody," Billy Duffy said. "He was a man of the people. He wanted to make a difference in peoples' lives."

Duffy died in the company of his wife of 65 years, Helen, their seven children and many of their 26 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren.

A celebration of his life will take place Monday at 8:30 a.m. at Bryant Funeral Home in East Setauket. A funeral Mass will follow at 9:30 a.m. in St. James Roman Catholic Church. Burial will be in Calverton National Cemetery.