Wilbur "Bill" Kauff, World War II veteran and FDNY chief, dies at 96

Wilbur Kauff, an Army veteran of World War II who went on to join the New York City Fire Department, rising through the ranks to battalion chief, died this month after a long illness. He was 96.

In retirement, Kauff, who went by "Bill," became an active member of VFW Post 7763 in Massapequa Park to do "some good in the community for fellow vets," said his daughter, Barbara Roth.

Kauff participated in the post’s annual Poppy Day fundraisers, according to Bill Colfer, the post commander, who said, "Sometimes the biggest heroes are the ones that nobody notices and Bill was that kind of guy."

His outside hobbies included U.S. history, taking his family on trips and building a pair of giant dollhouses. He doted on his granddaughters, Jennifer and Alison, said his son-in-law Bob Boyle, and helped raise them after his other daughter Diane, Boyle’s wife, died in 2001 at age 46.

"He just jumped into the void and would pick up the girls in the morning and take them to school and pick them up at the end of the day," Boyle said. "Here’s a guy that was a battalion chief in the fire department and wasn’t around because he worked so many different hours, wasn’t around a lot for his own kids. But here he was around for my kids."

And so were the dollhouses. "He got into making dollhouses, which is totally nothing that he did as an occupation," Roth said, adding Kauff built two of them. "And I mean dollhouses. I’m not just talking little four walls with about one foot by two feet. These things were so massive, it took three people to carry."

Kauff's love of history was a family affair when his daughters were growing up. "His idea of a vacation back then was to get in a car, load it [up] and just drive around the U.S.A.," said Roth. A favorite destination was the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Born July 14, 1924, in Brooklyn to Ethel Dieck Kauff and Edward Kauff, Kauff was the oldest of three siblings. Both siblings preceded him in death. He graduated from Brooklyn Tech High School and was drafted into the Army in March 1944, Colfer said.

As a combat infantryman, Kauff received the Purple Heart for his wounds sustained in Germany.

In December 1947, Kauff married Cressy Reichle and became a firefighter with the FDNY the same month. In 1954, the couple moved from Cambria Heights in Queens to Massapequa Park.

Kauff retired from the FDNY in November 1984 after 37 years, Roth said. In 1996, after his wife died, Kauff joined the VFW. He also became an usher at St. David’s Lutheran Church in Massapequa Park, where his funeral was held Friday.

In 2020, when Kauff was moving into The Bristal Assisted Living at Massapequa, the home he had for 66 years didn't go to a stranger.

"Bill sold the house when he was going into the Bristal to his granddaughter" Alison, Boyle said. "The house stays in the family."