James Merrick Jr., engineer, of Ronek Park

James Merrick Jr., one of the first homeowners in the North Amityville subdivision of Ronek Park -- a subdivision that stood out from thousands on post-World War II Long Island because it sold homes to African-Americans -- has died. He was 89, said his son, James Merrick III.

The elder Merrick, who served as a combat engineer during the war, bought a three-bedroom, flat-roofed home for $6,000 in 1951. "Those were called flat-tops," said his son. "If you said you lived in one of those, people familiar with the area knew exactly what it was."

Merrick, a North Carolina native, was living in Harlem when he saw an advertisement for Ronek Park, he told Newsday for a 1997 story on the neighborhood. "We all had new homes," he said. "We had never owned a home, most of us."

Merrick's son said his father was a mentor and informal father figure to many young men in the neighborhood. "It was heavy," he said. "A young fella would come to our house, my father would tell him to sit down and my sister and I would just look at each other -- there's 45 minutes or an hour."

Trained as an engineer at Howard University, Merrick worked for the New York State Department of Transportation before going into private practice with the Babylon engineering firm Greenman-Pederson.

The job shaped the man, Merrick's son said. "Being an engineer, he was systematic and methodical in his approach to life. . . . His lesson was, you can do everything in your power, but sometimes things aren't going to go your way, and you need to plan for that."

Merrick was past chairman of the board of Amityville's Holy Trinity Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday school.

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Merrick's wife, Doretha Cynthia Merrick, a nurse, died in 2010. His funeral is Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the church, 300 Albany Ave. in Amityville, followed by burial at Calverton National Cemetery.