Our dad, James Henry Morin Jr. was born on Flag Day June 14, 1930 to Helen and WWI Veteran James H. Morin Sr. in Far Rockaway, NY. On November 9, 2019 at the age of 89, he passed away peacefully and loved, at his favorite place on this earth, his home. After graduating Far Rockaway High School, Dad worked for the Long Island Lighting Company briefly until his deployment as a U.S. Army Veteran to Korea. Upon his return from Korea, and after attending apprentice school, he returned to LILCO as a 2nd Class Linesman, then to First Class Linesman and was ultimately promoted to Area Supervisor. He was proud of his accomplishments at LILCO and had surpassed company expectations on many occasions. It was an understatement to say he loved his job. He could be counted upon to get the job done, and did so, usually with a skeleton crew in minimal time and always ready to deploy with a crew any time of day. He was the guy at the top of the pole in sub zero temperatures working in darkness while entire neighborhoods slept. Dad never complained about the sometimes grueling conditions of work and upon returning in the early hours from a long, cold snowy or rainy night, would take a nap and get right back to work. He was most proud of this career spanning 45 years at LILCO which ended in his retirement in May of 1994. Even at 89, he expressed he would go back to work,"any time they asked." During many car rides over the last few months, he would always try and micromanage any work crew from afar that he saw out and about town. There was, he'd say, "always a right way to do things." And with his impeccable work ethic, he was right.

This work ethic started early. At just 14, Dad was employed at The Colony, a restaurant in Far Rockaway. When the owner had passed away suddenly, the owner's wife was left distraught with a business to run all by herself and had looked to Dad to help out. He jumped into action and ran the restaurant "without a hitch," he said, "cooking the hams and managing the place." He was the only one of his friends who had a job at the time and was always lending them money. On one occasion he had done so to afford them to go to prom. When asked why he had not attended, he said, "because your mother (his future wife and our mother) refused to go with me!" and laughed heartily. As long as we can remember in our early years, he was always busy working. Even on his own time he still worked, whether mowing a neighbors lawn, painting a house, fixing anything. A true handyman and collector of many things, his basement was a place that would put a hardware store to shame. If you needed something, he had it and would gladly give it to you or lend you a tool or machine you might need. If he lent you something and expected it returned and it wasn't, well... that's an entirely different story and you'd never hear the end of it! Due to circumstances too complicated to detail here, we lost touch with our dad. But through a miracle and urging of his longtime friend, Isadore "Izzy" Zaneski, Dad contacted us. Though it had been many years, we all unconditionally jumped at the chance to reconnect and were fortunate to spend the last few months of his life with him, taking care of him, laughing and rekindling a family relationship that had been lost for so long. He had just turned 89 and needed our help having been on his own for quite some time, unbeknownst to any of us. He was contending with his frail health all on his own, slowing down after a full life with years of hard work catching up to him.

According to his many friends and neighbors, Dad could always be found tinkering about his backyard. Finding "treasures" fixing them or cleaning them up was something that took up much of his time, especially bicycles. He had an entire fleet of them at one point on his front porch. They all found loving homes recently. Well...at least the ones with tires did! A prolific whistler while he worked or cooked, he also had a beautiful singing voice to match. As we cared for him at his home over the last few months, friends and neighbors would stop by regularly to see him and express how much he had helped them over the years or to say they had been a recipient of one of the "collectibles" he had acquired on his daily car rides. They would bring him his favorite cakes or cookies, even bring their grandchildren to see him if they hadn't see him out and about in a while. Everyone was so kind. He was very lucky to have so many looking out for him. And for that, we are grateful to all of you and thank you all for your kindness. Dad was predeceased by two step brothers, Buddy and Billy and a sister, Eileen. Our mother, Peggy, with whom he was divorced for many decades, also predeceased him in 2017. He is survived by his five children; Regina, Maureen (Dave), Jimmy, Michael (Dianne) and Meg (Kevin) and five grandchildren; Matthew and Daniel Powers, Michael Morin, Kevin Jr and his "sweetie" and frequent visitor, granddaughter Georgia Bunce whose infectious smile and hugs always brought a smile to his face; his best friend of over 25 years, Izzy, and many friends. A graveside ceremony for immediate family will take place at Calverton National Cemetery on November 13. We love you and will miss you, Dad. "Sometimes too late is just in time." - CJ Carlyon