Port General Council Award to Sam Bogen Civic Leader Honored

Sam Bogen was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation by the Port Washington General Council of Homeowner Associations in recognition of his 42 years of outstanding service to the community.

Mr. Bogen was a founder and late president of the Beachway Estates Association, served for five years as a member of the School Board and has been active with the General Council and its predecessor organization, the Port Washington Civic Council. He was also chairman of the School District Citizens Bond Monitoring Committee in 1990 and the Library Board Public Project Team in 1993.

His public service has been distinguished by a high standard of integrity as well as a recognition of the need to increase public participation and cost-effectiveness in local government by championing a culture of openness and candor. When $800,000 of the $9.6 million school district bond funds was spent on items not part of the bond issue approved by the voters, Mr. Bogen stated that he resigned from the monitoring committee which he chaired. When operational irregularities were uncovered at the library, he was a leader of the effort to develop reforms to restore the good name of a treasured Port Washington institution.

Mr. Bogen traces the formation of the Beachway Estates Association to a swimming outing with family and neighbors at a vacant half-acre of Manhasset Bay waterfront between the Port Washington Yacht Club and the Port Washington Estates Beach. Daughter Elizabeth, then 11, said to her father, "Dad, you had better buy that beach before someone else does." The Bogens broached that idea to their neighbors on Reid, Murray and Bayview Avenues and in 1955 the Beachway Estates Association was born as the owner of the beachfront property now called Galloway Park.

Sam served as the new association's representative to the Port Washington Civic Council, the umbrella group for the various homeowner associations in Port until it became inactive in 1970. After it was reactivated in 1988 as the General Council, Mr. Bogen lent his wisdom and boundless energies to its endeavors. Those attending General Council meetings over the years marvel at his knack for expressing himself vigorously and articulately on many subjects without benefit of preparation.

Mr. Bogen is a professional engineer and maintained his own engineering practice until he retired in 1986. He was elected president of the Consulting Engineers Council of the United States in 1967.

Sam and Ruth Bogen have three children, Elizabeth, Nicholas and Timothy, all Schreiber High School graduates. The Bogens are avid travelers and outdoor adventurers. Sam was a whitewater canoe trip leader of the Sierra Club for many years and at the ripe age of 84 still astonishes his friends with his canoeing portage prowess.