Peter J. Bernatovich Jr., a 43-year member of the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department who was most recently the president of its Company 3 firehouse, died on Friday due to complications from throat cancer. He was 61.
Bernatovich, a lifelong Thomaston resident, was also the firehouse’s former assistant treasurer. His brother Michael serves as its secretary.
“He was a very knowledgeable man. He knew a lot of the history of the fire department, and when he passed away I felt we lost a lot of our history,” said Scott Garrigan, the department’s 1st deputy chief in charge of the Company 3 firehouse.
“We always turned to Pete whenever we had a question of how it was done years ago, Garrigan said. “He was full of information.”
Bernatovich previously served as Company 3 president from 1986-88, its secretary from 1988-94 and the department’s assistant treasurer from 1990-99. He was also a Company 3 treasurer for eight years and had most recently been Company 3 president for the last few years.
Bernatovich was diagnosed with throat cancer in March 2013, which later metastasized to his brain. He was admitted to St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn twice since the start of 2015.
The Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department announced Bertanovich’s death Friday on its Facebook page, with a picture of Peter and Michael at the department’s 100-year anniversary celebration in 2012.
“Him and his brother were attached at the hip,” said Kirk Candan, the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department’s 3rd deputy chief. “They were very, very close brothers.”
Garrigan said Bernatovich convinced him to join the department in 1990 after knocking on his front door in support of an ongoing blood-drive initiative.
“I asked him a couple questions about the department and that I was thinking about joining and when he got back up to the firehouse, he explained to his brother who I was and told him to stop back over at my house and tell me to fill out an application,” Garrigan said.
Michael Bernatovich said his brother recruited him and his father, also named Peter, to join the fire department.
“He was 11 years older than me and I had to do what my big brother did. I idolized him,” said Michael, a 32-year member of the department. “I don’t know what possessed him to join, I was too young to really know, but he joined and I was fascinated with him joining. We’ve lived in Great Neck all our lives, around the block from the firehouse, and I always remembered him running up the block to get there. I ran with him. He ran all the way up until the cancer got him.”
Peter Bernatovich Jr. graduated from St. Mary’s High School in the early 1970s and went on to become a funeral director. He most recently worked out of Roma Funeral Home in Shirley.
Michael described his brother as having a sharp, dry sense of humor borne from a love of comedy movies, as well as an extensive knowledge of Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department history.
Peter could also tell his father’s World War II stories as a Russian prisoner-of-war after he was shot down fighting in the Pacific.
“The Russians weren’t at war with the Japanese, and held the Americans prisoner because they didn’t want to fight another war,” Michael said. “Most of it is lost with me, I know the basics of it, but Peter had all the details.”
Peter was also a member of the Knights of Columbus and volunteered at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church when he was needed, Michael said.
“He wasn’t about having superhero status, although he was a superhero to me,” Michael said. “Whatever the task was, it didn’t have to be the most glorious task, he just did it. That’s how dedicated he was to the people around him.”
Peter also took on a grandfatherly role for Michael’s children Bethany and Aiden after the elder Peter died in 1988.
“They probably manipulated him more than I would have liked, but he loved them very much,” Michael said.
According to a family obituary, Peter Bernatovich had requested donations be accepted for Bethany Aidan’s college fund.
He is survived by brother Michael, sister Susan J. Bernatovich-Sunderland and a significant other, Stella Flavien.
Wake and Firematic services for Bernatovich were held on Monday at Doyle B. Shaffer Funeral Home in Little Neck.
A funeral mass was held Tuesday at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in Great Neck.
