Robert L. Valentine, Bayville volunteer firefighter and roofing firm owner, dies at 96

Robert L. Valentine was a Bayville guy through and through. A father of six and a volunteer firefighter at the Bayville Fire Company for 77 years, Valentine served his community with pride and dignity, friends and family said. 

"He was always an upbeat person," his son Scott Valentine said. "Always upbeat, always quick-witted on things. His favorite saying when someone would ask ‘When did you do this?’, he would say, ‘It was a Thursday,’ no matter what it was."

For that reason, his family thought he would die on a Thursday. Instead, he was buried on a Thursday.

The lifelong Bayville resident died on June 6 at a rehab facility in Glen Cove. He was 96.

Robert "General" Valentine was born on April 26, 1930, in Bayville, where he would spend his entire life.

"His father lived in Bayville his entire life, I’ve been in Bayville my entire life," his son said. "We were in Bayville before Bayville was Bayville."

Bayville was incorporated as a village in 1919, during the "incorporated village movement." The Valentines were there before that.

"It’s always been a great place to live, and really, a great place to raise a family," Scott Valentine said. "My cousin, who came for the funeral, moved out of Bayville 55 years ago, but he said, ‘Man, there’s nothing better than coming back to Bayville.’ "

At the age of 2, Robert Valentine's father, Louis Valentine, gave him the nickname General — for being a general nuisance.

Valentine met his wife, Bettina Baker, who was two years younger than him, at Oyster Bay High School. They married in September 1951 shortly after she graduated.

He joined the Bayville Fire Company when he was 18. His dad was one of the charter members and wouldn’t let him join full-time until adulthood. Before joining, he was the company's mascot, beginning when he was 9.

Valentine also was a part of the Long Island-based Comanche Raiders Family Marching Band, playing the cymbals.

"He couldn’t read music, but he was still in the marching band," his son said.

Why be in a marching band if he couldn’t read music? To support Scott Valentine.

"I started in the band in 1977, went my musical way, then came back," Scott said. "Then I brought my son in. The last parade my dad marched in was the first parade my son marched in."

From the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, Robert Valentine would go iceboating wherever there was ice.

"We would go to Lake Ronkonkoma, we would stay in Bayville, we went to the Oyster Bay Harbor a couple of times," Scott said. "Throw the boat in the truck and away we went."

Being the fourth of Valentine's six children, Scott’s childhood could get pretty hectic at times. But his dad handled it with grace, he said.

"It was very chaotic," he said. "We lived in what they call a Cape Cod-style house. The older three [children], the house had enough room for, but when we came along, we had to put an addition on the house, which my father built himself."

"Growing up, we had our friends to play with, we would go out, and my father would whistle. He had the loudest whistle, and when we heard the whistle, we knew we had to come home for dinner, every night, without fail."

Valentine's friend Steven Thompson called him a "one-of-a-kind human being."

"Once in a lifetime, you come across a person that you would consider lucky to call them your friend," Thompson said. "Rest in peace, my friend, it was an honor, knowing you and calling you my friend."

From 1987 to 2012, Scott Valentine and his father owned a roofing company called J and B Roofing.

"We always had a good time. We worked for everybody in town and they really liked us," Scott Valentine said. "That was one of the things that was always wonderful, I got to work for my father for that long."

When Valentine died, he was the oldest and longest serving member in the Bayville Fire Company.

"His big goal in life, as he got older, he’d be telling me ‘I’m number eight now. I’m working my way up the list.’ And he made it to number one," his son said.

Despite battling dementia during the final years of his life, Valentine recognized his son until the very end.

"I’d whisper something in his ear that only he could know, and two days before he died, he could get a chuckle out of it," he said.

Valentine is survived by five of his six children: Judith, of Bayville; Patricia, of Mastic Beach; Scott, of Bayville; Todd, of Albany; and Robb, of New Hyde Park; and two grandchildren, Thomas and Emily. He was predeceased by his wife, Bettina, and son Thomas.

His funeral service was held at Dodge-Thomas Funeral Home on June 11. He was buried at the Bayville Cemetery.