Jerry Ahern, family man and owner of heavy equipment firm Edward Ehrbar Inc., dies at 97

A heavy hitter in the world of heavy equipment, Farmingdale’s Jerry Ahern sold and leased bulldozers, excavators and other construction vehicles that for decades helped to build Long Island. As loved ones tell it, he ran his company the way he ran his family of eight children — with kindness, concern and remembering everyone’s name.

"To me, he was Uncle Jerry," said Steve Schiavetta, of Mount Sinai, a family friend who became a longtime part of Ahern’s company, Edward Ehrbar Inc., now part of the conglomerate Komatsu. "But really, to all the people who worked there he was also Uncle Jerry."

In a company of as many as 150 people, "He not only knew everybody's names, he knew their spouses’ and kids’ names, because he was such a family man himself."

It wasn’t for show but a genuine part of his personality, said Schiavetta, now general manager of sales for Komatsu Company Stores East. He recalled Ahern hiring him for an entry-level position in1982, soon after Schiavetta graduated college. "I knew he worked for a place that sold construction equipment, but he was just so unassuming that I was shocked after my first day, coming home and telling my mother, ‘Uncle Jerry's, like, the owner of the company!’ I couldn't believe it, because he was so humble and so even-keeled and such a kind man."

Ahern died Sunday, age 97, of natural causes at the Mary Ann Tully Hospice Inn in Melville. "He spent 36 hours in hospice," said Mary Macchio, of Farmingdale, one of his daughters. "The other 97 years he spent in his home."

"Last Thursday," three days before his death, "he had a small gang of adult-age great-grandchildren at his kitchen table," said one son, Patrick Ahern, of St. James. "They came in from Boston and from Omaha, Nebraska, to see him," Macchio said. "They knew grandpa was getting older, and he met his last two [of 17] great-grandchildren, who were 5 months old and 1 year old."

 "He was great to talk to, but he was also a great listener," Schiavetta said. "He liked people. He liked hearing what you had to say. And that's a tremendous gift to have." 

Farmingdale High graduate

Jeremiah Francis Ahern was born Oct. 4, 1927, in Brooklyn, the third of seven children of parents William J. Ahern and Helen A. Richardson Ahern, who resided in Bethpage — then still named Central Park.  William, a banker who rose to become a vice president of the Bank of Manhattan, later part of JPMorgan Chase & Co., was instrumental in his village’s name change to Bethpage and was part of a group that persuaded Grumman Aircraft to headquarter there. 

Despite such pedigree, Jerry Ahern, who graduated from Farmingdale High School in 1944, worked in more modest jobs — caddying in Bethpage State Park, being a hotel bellhop in Florida. After serving as a sergeant with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Constabulary Regiment in occupied Germany after World War II, he joined Edward Ehrbar’s since-closed Brooklyn facility in 1947 as a helper in the parts department.

After marrying Therese Regina Marie McMurray in 1949 and moving to Farmingdale to start a family, Ahern worked in virtually every position of the parts, service and sales departments as he rose to become president of the then Pelham Manor company in the late 1960s, following the death of its second-generation family owner. "And then he spent the next decade of his life buying the company," his son said. He retired in 1992, with his offspring taking over. In 2014 the family sold it to Komatsu America.

Weekends for family

A gin rummy card shark who rode a Honda 750 motorcycle in the 1970s and ’80s, Ahern worked long hours during the week but devoted weekends to family. In 1958 he purchased a beach house on West Meadow Beach, "and from Memorial Day to Labor Day, we were out on the boat, waterskiing," recalled Patrick Ahern. "All eight of us learned how to water ski from about 7 years old. We were kind of water rats," he joked, "and that's thanks to him."

In later years he golfed at the Huntington Country Club. While "not a scratch golfer," said his son, he nonetheless was named 2002 Golfer of the Year by the Independent Group Home Living Program, a Manorville nonprofit for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, for his philanthropy toward that organization.

He was a member of such professional groups as the Long Island Contractors Association, the General Contractors Association of New York and the Association of Equipment Distributors. 

In addition to his daughter Mary and son Patrick, he is survived by sons Jeremiah Jr., of Moneta, Virginia, Matthew, of Shelton, Connecticut, and Edward, of Hawley, Pennsylvania; daughters Susan Yuskevich, of Interlaken, New Jersey, Bernadette Bartolotto, of Smithtown, and Monica Lockwood, of Milford, Connecticut; a centenarian sister, Mary K. Looney, of Farmingdale; 20 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.

Visitation is Thursday and Friday at McCourt & Trudden Funeral Home in Farmingdale. A funeral Mass will be held Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at St. Kilian Roman Catholic Church in Farmingdale, followed by interment at St. Charles / Resurrection Cemeteries. Donations may be made to Independent Group Home Living, Hope House Ministries or St. Kilian Outreach.

Correction: The funeral Mass for Jerry Ahern is Saturday, 9:30 a.m., at St. Kilian Roman Catholic Church in Farmingdale. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect day.