A Who’s Who of Yonkers and Westchester politics came out to celebrate the American Irish Association’s 47th Annual Dinner Dance, and their honorees.
Irish Woman of the Year – Mary Hoar
Irish Man of the Year – Rev. Brendan Fitzgerald
Irish American Community Service Award – Ceol Na Gael Irish Sunday Show at WFUV (Fordham University) producers Maura Monahan Grunner and Maggie Dolan and hosts Ryan Slattery, Maggie Peknic and Patrick Breen
Irish American Achievement Award – Father Christopher Keenan
Giving their congratulations were, County Executive George Latimer, State Senator Shelley Mayer, former County Executive Rob Astorino, Assemblymember Nader Sayegh, City Councilman John Rubbo, Assemblymember Gary Pretlow.
A Mass was followed by music from the Tara Gold BAND. On behalf of Yonkers Rising and YonkersTimes.com, congratulations to all of the honorees but a special thanks to Mary Hoar and all of her contributions to Yonkers, and her service as a volunteer columnist in Yonkers Rising, penning every week On This Day in Yonkers History.
Here is Mary’s lenghty Bio of service. She is a true Yonkers treasure, congratulations Mary and God Bless!
A fourth generation Yonkers resident, Mary Hoar has been actively involved in the community since the age of sixteen when she served on then Mayor John E. Flynn’s Youth Advisory Committee while in high school.
In 2014 Mary was named the Vive School Adult Education Teacher of the Year.
Mary was an active member of the Yonkers Federation of Teachers, serving as Teacher Building Representative, involved in both school and union committees for almost thirty years.
Mary continued her career of community service as a Yonkers Jay-N-Cee, serving as President, Secretary and Treasurer. She received local and state awards for community service projects and programs she initiated for the Jay-N-Cees. In 1977 she received one of the state division’s highest honors, the Distinguished Service Award. Her efforts for the Jay-N-Cees and Yonkers earned her the Key to the City of Yonkers. At the same time, she became active in her alumni group, the Cornell Women’s Club of Westchester, serving as Secretary, Event Chairperson and on its Steering Committee
Her service to the Yonkers Red Cross soon followed, and was Branch Chairman and Vice Chairman. She chaired the Yonkers Red Cross Centennial, Youth Services and Competition Committees, and chaired the Yonkers branch celebration of the centennial of the American Red Cross; as part of that celebration, she conceived and organized the Branch’s celebration called the “100 Days of Red Cross,” each day highlighting a different activity, service or program of Yonkers Red Cross. She received several Branch and Chapter service awards, including the prestigious Janet Hopkins Memorial Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service in 1987.
She became involved with the Westchester March of Dimes with the very first Yonkers Walkathon, and worked on its Coordinating Committee each year the event was held here in Yonkers. She served on the Executive Board of the Northern Metro Chapter of the March of Dimes for 17 years, acting as Chair of the Reading Olympics and serving on the Public Affairs, Golden Gala and Tennis Tournament Committees. For this service, the March of Dimes presented her several awards, including the 1987 Outstanding Volunteer Service Award.
Currently serving as President of the Untermyer Performing Arts Council, Mary was a charter member of its board in 1976, serving as the first treasurer and later as recording secretary. She has chaired several committees and initiated the O’Connor Performing Arts Scholarship in memory of the late arts activist Eileen O’Connor. She was a regular contributor to its newsletter, writing not only on the history of Untermyer Park, but also on the history of the people who lived on the estate. Her efforts were recognized with the UPAC Gryphon Service Award in 2002.
Mary first joined the Mayor’s Community Relations Committee in 1975 and served as Chair of several committees. She was Advisor to the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee, the very same group she belonged to while in high school. Under her leadership, this committee greatly expanded its activities, assisting many not-for-profit organizations in activities as varied as working on walkathons for Cerebral Palsy and the March of Dimes to selling daffodils for the American Cancer Society to writing a handbook for teens looking for summer employment. During her time as Executive Chairperson, MCRC instituted the Salute to Yonkers Business and Industry, the Miss Yonkers Pageant, and the Salute to Yonkers Schools and Teachers. Mary was an active member on the Yonkers celebrations of the American and New York State Bicentennials coordinated by the MCRC. She was an active member of the committee that arranged Yonkers’ “sistering” with the Island of St. Eustasius, the first country that recognized the thirteen colonies as an independent country; as part of that, she directed the MCRC’s collection of books and school materials Yonkers residents and public school students contributed for St. Eustasius’s new library and their camping colony.
Mary joined the board of the Family Service Society of Yonkers in 1978, and has served in several offices, including President. She served as Chair of several committees, and remains active on this board, currently serving as its Secretary.
Currently President Emerita of the Yonkers Historical Society, Mary served as its President from 1999-2004 and 2008-2015, creating its social media pages during her tenure as President. Mary has been on its board since 1988 and was a volunteer for several years earlier. She chaired the Membership and the Archives and Library Committees, and both created and chaired the Education Committee that awards the Patricia Mangold Scholarships and US History Awards to Yonkers high school students. She wrote and edited their quarterly newsletter, The Yonkers Historian, for several years and supervised all activities and programs of the organization. In 2004, the Society awarded her the Key to History, their highest award, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the society.
Mary’s love for history led her to accept an appointment on the City of Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board. Mary is a weekly columnist for the Yonkers Rising newspaper, writing a calendar of Yonkers’ historic events of the past.
Besides history, Mary’s other avocation is genealogy, and has been a member and officer of the Westchester County Genealogy Society for many years. She served as president for 4 years, and currently is Vice President of Programs. Her love for genealogy also led to her interest in her Irish heritage; she currently is a board member of the American Irish Association of Westchester, a member of Comhaltas Ceolteoiri Eireann and the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians (Division 19).
In 2015, Mary was named an Aide to the Grand Marshall of the Yonkers St. Patrick’s Day Parade; her paternal grandparents were from Old Parish and Knockmeal in County Waterford: she obtained her Irish Citizenship more than 30 years ago through her grandmother Mary Boyle Hoar. Her maternal lines are from Clonmel, Emly, Upperchurch and Drom in County Tipperary.
Mary has been involved with many other community activities over the years, including the Yonkers Marathon Committee, Aquehung Women’s Democratic Club, Irish History Round Table, Fermi Scholarship Breakfast Committee, and the Yonkers Jaycees. She currently is the Nominating Committee Chair for the Foundation for the Yonkers Public Library.
She has received many official proclamations and certificates for her volunteer service from local and state officials, including receiving the Key to the City of Yonkers from Mayor Angelo Martinelli, being named one of Yonkers 2014 Women of Distinction, honored for her community service by the Salvation Army in 2014, recognized by then Assemblymember Shelley Mayer as an outstanding Yonkers woman in the Assemblymember’s 2018 Women’s History Month Celebration, and has been listed in Who’s Who of America, Who’s Who of American Women and Who’s Who of the World.
In 2016, Mary was named to the Westchester County Senior Hall of Fame.
