Lake Ronkonkoma memorial to Navy SEAL to be replaced after damage

Peter Marmorato and his sister, Gina Dougherty, didn't have to think twice last July when they heard a plaque honoring Medal of Honor recipient Michael Murphy had been destroyed.

Their late father, Peter Marmorato Sr., had designed and made the original plaque that had been installed at a Lake Ronkonkoma park named for Murphy, a Patchogue native and Navy SEAL who was killed in 2005 while on a secret mission in Afghanistan.

Brother and sister immediately volunteered to make a new plaque at no cost to either Murphy's family or the Town of Brookhaven, which owns the park. The new plaque bears the same inscription as the old one, and features the same image of Murphy in uniform.

But this one won't suffer the same fate as the old one, they said. The new plaque, at three inches in depth, is more than three times thicker than the original.

"Everything is the same, but everything is more dense," Peter Marmorato, 45, said Monday at his shop, Art Stone & Memorial in Kings Park. "You could ..."

" ... Drive a truck on it," his sister said.

The new monument will be installed at the park in about two weeks, Marmorato said. For now, the plaque rests at his shop awaiting its journey to the park.

Daniel Murphy, Michael's father, said the family is pleased that "the heart of that monument is back in its rightful place of honor. ... I know it’s going to be bigger and better than it was, which is really in keeping with Michael’s legacy."

The Murphy family and Lake Ronkonkoma residents expressed a mixture of outrage and sorrow on July 19 when the damaged memorial was discovered. Suffolk police charged a 14-year-old Ronkonkoma boy with damaging the plaque. The boy was not identified because of his age. 

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had pledged to pay for the monument's replacement.

Eliot Mazzacca is the owner of Calverton-based Lido Stone and a neighbor of Daniel Murphy who donated a slab of granite, and Marmorato did the engraving free of charge. The original design used by Marmorato's father remained in a computer at the business, and was used for the new stone.

“Eliot told me that that piece is unbreakable," Murphy said.

Brookhaven officials have installed security cameras at the park, which overlooks Lake Ronkonkoma, where Michael Murphy once worked as a lifeguard and where he trained for Navy service by swimming across the lake.

New lighting will be installed at the park this spring, town councilman Neil Foley said.

The Lake Ronkonkoma monument is one of several memorials honoring Michael Murphy. His alma mater, Penn State University, dedicated a wall in his honor, and the USS Michael Murphy, a guided-missile destroyer, patrols the Pacific Ocean. A Navy SEAL museum under construction in West Sayville will be named for him.

“Michael’s purpose and legacy have become larger than life now," his father said. "He’s become the poster child for the Navy.”

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.