Stanley Shapiro dies; once owned Swan Club

One night while out dining with his wife, Fran, in the Mooring Restaurant in Cold Spring Harbor in 1963, then-restaurant manager Stanley Shapiro struck up a conversation with the owner of the elegant waterfront establishment.

That exchange sparked a bond with Bubs Siegel, who became Shapiro's mentor and would lead Shapiro to preside over a Nassau restaurant empire that included the Swan Club in Roslyn Harbor, Royal Lancer in Lake Success and Royal Lancer II in Woodbury.

Shapiro, who has long been known as a generous giver and a smart businessman, died Monday.

He was 90.

Funeral services will be held Thursday at noon at Gutterman's Funeral Home in Woodbury. Burial will follow services.

"My father was a people person," said Mitch Shapiro, his son. "He cared deeply and took care of his family needs. He loved his sports and his friends. He was a man who knew how to give and taught others by example to do the same."

Born in Manhattan in August 1921, Shapiro grew up in Flatbush, graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School. He attended college at Savage School of Physical Education in Manhattan and enlisted in the Army in 1943 during World War II.

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He was stationed in London as a medical corpsman in the 663rd Field Artillery, and he also went into Germany. He returned to Brooklyn in October 1945.

In 1949, he married Francine Chanowitz.

About that time Stanley Shapiro began rising through the ranks at one of the three Cooky's restaurants in Brooklyn, where he worked his way up from counterman at the Avenue M location to managing all three, his wife said.

He moved his managerial skills to Long Island in 1956 when he opened a Cooky's in Hempstead.

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By then, Mitch Shapiro and his younger sister, Susan, had come along, and the young family moved to Syosset.

Stanley and Fran Shapiro were out for dinner at one of their favorite restaurants when Siegel stopped by their table.

"It was spectacular," Fran Shapiro said of the Mooring Restaurant, which they didn't mind traveling to even when they lived in Brooklyn. "It was mainly seafood. It was a very beautiful, romantic spot."

The two men bought the Swan Club in 1964.

"He made it a great success," Fran Shapiro said. "He had many, many devoted employees who adored him."

By 1994, he had sold the last of the restaurants, the Swan Club, and retired. He remained an avid golfer and philanthropist.

The couple spent summers in Montauk and winters in Bal Harbour, Fla.

Stanley Shapiro had helped organize golf tournaments in Nassau County to raise money for Foundation Fighting Blindness, which he served as a trustee.

He was honored by such civic groups as the American Heart Association, the Boy Scouts of America and Kiwanis and Lions clubs of Nassau County. Former Nassau County Executive Francis Purcell appointed Shapiro to the board of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency. He served without a salary.

He was an honorary Glen Head postmaster and an honorary Glenwood Landing firefighter.

Besides his wife and son, Mitch, Shapiro is survived by his daughter, Susan; a brother, Leon; and two grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Foundation for Sight and Sound, the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youth and Adults, and the Hearing Loss Association of America.