Three local residents were honored for their inclusion on the Farmingdale High School Wall of Fame last week during an induction ceremony at the high school's lecture hall. Wall of Fame committee members selected Chief Peter J. Ganci Jr., Arthur Kranz and Frank Nocerino to be the honorees this year.

Dr. Donna Stanza, high school senior assistant principal, welcomed all in attendance to the ceremony and introduced Jane Rubinstein, board of education trustee and Dr. Roberta Gerold, superintendent of schools, who each addressed the audience.

"It's such a great evening when we can see so many friends from Farmingdale here; community members, students, members of the local fire department, school board members, central office administrators," Dr. Stanza said. "I would like to acknowledge the committee for the Wall of Fame that has worked long and hard to bring tonight together."

"Tonight is truly one of the most delightful events each year in the Farmingdale School District," Rubinstein said. "More than tallying the solid education, the social opportunities and the long-term relationships created here in Farmingdale, tonight represents the coming together of a community with the schools.

"Tonight we honor and recognize individuals who chose to remain here in our community for their continuing role in the community within our bounds and beyond," she added. "These people honored tonight and the 22 individuals honored in the Wall of Fame since 1995 are not only Farmingdale students of the past; they're the parents [and] the grandparents of our current students, our community leaders, our civic activists and our role models. We celebrate their heroism, their humor and their mystery, their professional dedication and above all, their commitment to excellence."

"About a year ago, I attended my first Wall of Fame ceremony," Dr. Gerold said. "That night was just amazing; that night showed me that Farmingdale is made up of very special people who have at their heart a love of Farmingdale and a love of each other. We honor them because they say to all of us not only is Farmingdale a place where we value each other, we value our community but we also value our service, we value our respect that we have for one another and we value life itself. Tonight is our opportunity to just congratulate those people and say thank you for being Farmingdale, thank you for showing us and reminding us how special we are and thank you for sharing with us your humanity, your thoughts and your wisdom.

"[These individuals] have something within them that we can only aspire to," she added. "They set a standard for behavior, they set a standard for service, they set a standard for humility that's hard to duplicate."

Chief Ganci, member of the Farmingdale Class of 1964, was the first inductee. The award was accepted by his son, Christopher.

"Long before the tragic Sept. 11, everyone that knew Pete Ganci knew he was special. That record day gave the rest of the nation a glimpse of how extraordinary he truly was," Christopher said. "My father let his deeds speak for him. That's how he lived his entire life. Over the past eight months, my father has been bestowed many great honors; by this nation and by nations abroad, but I know that he would get a special satisfaction from this award. My father loved Farmingdale.

"Pete Ganci always thought of himself as an average guy. Those of us who knew him, knew better. Once you became a friend of Pete Ganci, you were a friend for life. Throughout his life he remained the same person and would never let his title get to his head. When anyone would ask him about his profession, he would answer with a quick smile and say 'I'm on the fire department,' and the special thing about that was that he meant it. But it would not do justice to forget him. My father was the chief of the department. He was the highest ranked uniform personnel but he thought of himself as just another fireman. He would never order another man to do anything he wasn't willing to do himself. Tragically, 342 other firefighters were killed along with him that Tuesday morning, but most importantly is that over 25,000 civilians were saved that day making 9/11 the most successful rescue operation of the modern era. It is only after he died that we truly realized how he touched people's lives and this is why I believe he is a great candidate for your wall of honor. I know that he's looking down on all of us and smiling."

Dr. Stanza introduced lifelong Farmingdale resident Arthur Kranz as the next inductee and noted that many students were in the audience.

"Most of them I think came tonight because of this man," she said. "The reason that they did come is because Artie comes to all their games. He is the person that they see sitting in the bleachers whether it's raining, whether they're winning, it doesn't matter - Arthur is there. He's kind of become the unofficial spokesperson for sports in Farmingdale."

Dr. Stanza noted that Kranz is often at the high school and has become a familiar icon to the students. She said that Kranz can be found at the high school often because he is always involved in some kind of activity, whether it be working on publications, writing books on the history of the community and district teams or compiling information for the Farmingdale - Bethpage Historical Society of which he is a member.

Dr. Stanza invited student Robert Bonaguro, an athlete on high school sports teams, including football, to tell Kranz about the impact his presence makes on the football team.

"I would just like to say on behalf of all my teammates and my coaches, Artie has been around Farmingdale football [for a long time]," he said. "He knows every single thing about Farmingdale football history, everything about this town and he truly lifted the spirit of our team this year."

Kranz, alumnus of the class of 1939, thanked the district for this unexpected honor.

"I want to thank all the people that took the time to be here with us tonight; the school staff, the principals, the coaches, the Dalers, the Lady Dalers, my friends, the masons, the firemen, the historical society. I really appreciate you being here. It makes me feel so proud," he said. "I've lived in Farmingdale all my life. I was a fortunate kid. I was brought up during the depression - tough? No, it wasn't tough because I lived in one of the best villages you could live in. We had the open fields, we had our own ball parks. We had Bethpage State Park where we could play golf, where we could ice skate and sleigh ride. We had everything that we could want."

Kranz noted that he attended the Main Street School and also served in the US Navy in WWII.

"I came back to Farmingdale after the service and I met one of the prettiest girls in town," he said, pointing to his wife Gertrude.

In addition to his many involvements concerning the school district, Kranz is also the chairman of the restoration of the Bethpage Cemetery, located directly across the street from an entrance to Bethpage State Park. Kranz recognized the many individuals who have assisted him and fellow historical society members in cleaning up and renovating the grounds of the cemetery.

"There's an old saying that if you need a job done, you find a busy man. I think that Frank Nocerino is one of those busy men," Dr. Stanza said, introducing the next honoree. "He is always running from one thing to the next and always getting the job done."

"I don't know where that man gets the time to do what he does and how he gets accomplished," said Nocerino's neighbor, George O'Brien, who nominated him to the Wall of Fame. O'Brien noted many of Nocerino's accomplishments, both before and after he graduated from college, got married and became a father.

"In 1970, Frank joined the North Massapequa Fire Department," he said. "He has held every office in the fire department, from lieutenant to chief. Frank has been elected four times to the board of fire commissioners [and] has excelled in that office. He is also the past president of the Nassau County Fire Districts Association and has been named chairman of the Nassau County Fire Commission, which is the highest ranking office in Nassau County [making him] the first fire district officer from North Massapequa to hold this highly respected position.

"Just this past week, Frank [was] elected to be the president of the Association of Fire Districts of the State of New York which encompasses 850 fire districts, which includes approximately 100 to 125,000 firefighters. This is the highest in the state fire service. Just yesterday, Frank was awarded the Nassau County Firematic Award by the Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi for his outstanding contributions to the fire service of Nassau County."

Nocerino's neighbor noted that his community involvements and contributions are too numerous list. He said that as being chairman of the county fire commission he coordinated the many fire departments and rescue squads during the World Trade Center tragedy. He was also chiefly responsible for the installation of the lighting at the Farmingdale High School athletic field. He is the president of Friends of Farmingdale Athletics and was the driving force between the high school having received an automatic electronic defibrillator.

"Coming back to your own community where you live, raise your family, your school, getting an award from your school district; nothing is more exciting," Nocerino said. "I didn't do all this by myself. There are many people who got me here and I wish you could all be on the wall with me," he said, recognizing members of the Friends of Farmingdale Athletics, his family, coaches, including his former football coach and fire service mentor Don Snyder, who was attended the ceremony; students and some of his former teachers who were on hand at the ceremony.

"I chose to raise my family here because I love the Farmingdale School District. My children graduated here and when they graduated I had tears in my eyes because I know that they have achieved the goal that I set out for them," he said. "I tell people nobody can do it better than a Daler. Stay in your community - and bring everybody back to where your roots are - because nobody does it better than Farmingdale and I'm proud to be a Daler."