Gibbs, Alonzo and Iris

Alonzo was born on February 17, 1915 and spent his early days in Canarsie, Brooklyn. He moved with his family to Valley Stream where his father purchased a twelve acre farm from the Hendrickson family. He lived in Valley Stream until 1933. At this time he moved with his family to a farm in Plainedge, and he attended Farmingdale High School for part of his junior year and his senior year. At Farmingdale High School he was president of the Debating Club, in school plays, on the baseball and track team. Upon graduation he took courses at Hofstra College, and in 1941 he received a certificate from Columbia University on Aircraft Structural Design.

From 1934 - 1973 Alonzo was employed by Grumman Aircraft Corp. He started as a blue print boy in the Engineering Department when Grumman was located in Farmingdale. He continued to advance over the years and he had the opportunity to work on the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module). He always pursued his love of writing. He wrote many young adult novels, poetry and essays which were published over the years. Alonzo met Iris Ebish who was also born in Brooklyn and Iris's family later settled in Central Park. Iris was a very bright girl who graduated Farmingdale High School at the age of 16 as valedictorian of her class. They met at Sunday School at the Plainedge Methodist Church (now the United Methodist Church of Bethpage) and on June 17, 1939 they were married there. They had one son, Geoffrey, born in 1940. They shared a love of nature, art, books, history and enjoyed walking the plains, beaches and woodland together.

They wrote for the Long Island Forum for 40 years. These writings were later compiled into books, HARKING BACK and BETHPAGE BYGONES, which documents the history of our community from the time of the Bethpage Purchase by Thomas Powell on thru the early 1900's.

They retired to Main in 1973 and Iris died in1983. Alonzo married Priscilla Moss in 1986 and he died in 1992. Information from: Memorial Dinner and Program Booklet To the memory of Iris and Alonzo Gibbs, June 22, 1993 and The Farmingdale Hi Life 1934.