Former Williston Park Trustee and Deputy Mayor Nicholas “Bud” Haller died on Jan. 27. He was 83 years old.
Haller was remembered as an active member of the community who made friends easily.
“He became very active at St. Aidans’s and then in local politics,” said his son Raymond Haller, a partner in the Haller-Zaremba insurance agency. “My father was a people person. He loved people and loved to do things for people.”
Haller moved to Williston Park with his wife, June, in 1955 while he was managing the bond and burglary department for Lumberman’s Mutual Insurance Co.
He immediately became involved with St. Aidan Church, where he served as an usher, was a member of the Holy Name Society and volunteered as a CYO football coach.
He then got involved in local politics, serving as a trustee and deputy mayor of the Village of Williston Park for from 1970 to 1972.
From there, he became a force in a wide number of local organizations.
He was a life member of the Knights of Columbus, Corpus Christi Council, past president of the Williston Park Rotary and past vice president of The Chamber of Commerce of the Willistons, a longtime member American Legion Williston Post 144 and a trustee of the Williston Park Library. He was also a member of the Independent Insurance Agents Association.
Haller left Lumberman’s Insurance to join his uncle Pete’s insurance business, the Haller Agency, in Queens in 1960. After his uncle died, Haller moved the insurance business to Williston Park in 1974. His son, Raymond, began working with his father in the agency in 1989 and Haller eventually sold the business to his son two years before he retired.
Nicholas Haller was born on Aug. 3, 1929, the second child of seven his parents raised in a three-story brick house in Ridgewood, Queens, with extended family also living in the house.
“He came from a very strong, close family. Their house was open to all their friends,” Raymond said.
Raymond said he recalled large family gatherings at his grandmother’s house when he was growing up.
“A lot of the fond memories were going to my grandmother’s house. She’d make a big dinner and used to play the piano for hours,” he said.
Haller went to St. John’s Prep on a football scholarship. He accepted an internship at Brown Crosby Insurance while attending St, John’s, and started working there after graduating.
He was drafted into U.S. Army in 1951, assigned to the 757th amphibious tank and tractor battalion. It was the only amphibious unit activated during Korean War but he was stationed on the west coast during that war, doing amphibious training at San Diego Naval base
In an informal memoir he left, he wrote, “As is usual with the Army, I could not swim and was placed in the amphibious outfit.”
Raymond remembers learning a lot from his father about the insurance business. But mostly he remembers his father as a gregarious man who enjoyed interacting with his neighbors and had a deep affection for his family.
“He loved to laugh and his laughter was contagious. He loved to talk to people,” Raymond said. “He loved his family.”
Raymond said his father enjoyed playing golf and fishing, a pastime he shared with his sons at the family’s summer house on Candlewood Lake in Connecticut.
“My dad and my brothers loved to go fishing,” he recalled.
He said his father was also an avid sports fans, usually rooting for New York teams.
Nicholas is survived by his wife, June; his sons, Thomas, Raymond and Marc, his grandchildren, Gregory, Jennifer and Nicholas III, his sisters Loretta, Rosemary, Marjorie, and his brother Stephen. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews.
A wake was to be held on Thursday, with visitation hours at 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at Weigand Bros Funeral Home, 49 Hillside Ave., Williston Park, NY. A funeral mass was to be held on Friday at 10 a.m. in St. Aidan Church. Interment was to follow at Holy Rood Cemetery.
Donations may be made in Nicholas’s memory to The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center or The VA Home located in Stony Brook.
