Lieutenant
Geoffrey Guja
Battalion 43
Laid
to Rest
on September 22, 2001
The
Mayor of Gilgo Beach - Big and loud
Geoffrey E. Guja always made sure that life was fun for everyone
around him. He built tiki huts for parties at the beach and
took his golden retriever, Simba, with him to the bars. He even
kept a yellow-feather chicken costume in the closet that he
donned for special occasions, like his daughter's sweet 16 party
last month. It always got laughs. Lieutenant Guja, 47, was a
New York City firefighter for 15 years, and lived with his wife,
Debbie, and two daughters, Jamie and Kelly, in Lindenhurst,
N.Y. He surfed every summer at Gilgo Beach, and was so popular
there that he was called the mayor. At his funeral last Saturday,
his wife arranged for a flower replica of his chicken costume
to be laid on his grave. "There's nobody else like him," she
said. "The world is going to be very quiet and boring without
him." Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 29,
2001.