Parade Coordinator Keeps Syosset in Step

A Honda SUV had been parked for days in front ofand remained there during the . In addition to a parking ticket, the owner of the car also got a piece of someone's mind.

"2 Hr. Parking! You've been over two days...Parade starts at 10 a.m.," warned Uncle Sam in thick black marker on a photocopy of a Syosset Memorial Day Committee flier.

"Sometimes it takes just one person to get something going," said Syosset's Parade Coordinator Gus Scutari.

On Memorial Day in Syosset, that one person is Gus Scutari. Weaving together his no-nonsense, U.S. Navy background and a love of meeting and working with people, Brooklyn-bred Scutari has orchestrated each step of the Syosset Memorial Day Parade for 21 years. And at 91 years old, after surviving scorching heat, downpours, and a heart attack seven years ago, he remains peppier than a John Philip Sousa number.

"How ya doing there, Gus?" called one veteran from the parking lot where the parade began.

"Terrible," answered Scutari with a smirk before taking out his master list and turning to a middle school color guard leader. "Are you people supposed to be in front of the band?"

First-time marchers know intuitively that if you can read the gold "Post Commander, 1990-91 All Nassau County" lettering clearly on Scutari's VFW hat, you're probably out of place and he is on his way to put you back. As the parade start time draws nearer, his cover sits further and further forward on his head, like Popeye before he knocks out the bad guy.

When he was a Navy fire controlman in World War II, Scutari had to be organized and had little time for nonsense. Thirteen men were killed on his destroyer, the USS Haynsworth, when it was hit by a Japanese kamikaze plane April 6, 1945 near Okinawa. He and his shipmates worked together to get the wounded vessel safely back to the states.

So after the former Syosset parade coordinator quit just days before Memorial Day in 1991, a choice had to be made. Scutari, then commander of the Syosset VFW, volunteered for the mission of getting over 1,000 marchers from one end of Jackson Avenue to the other.

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Once the drum beats and marching ceased at the other end of the parade route, Scutari's cover began to slide back as he eased into grasping the attention of the hundreds gathered for the Memorial Park ceremony.

After several petty officers, including Petty Officer Crystal Vasquez, stood and proclaimed their pride in serving their country, Scutari said, "When I was in the Navy, we didn't have pretty girls like her… If we did, we would've forgotten about the enemy…"

The entire audience cracked up, including Scutari's wife of 39 years, Fran. Before she and her husband ever stood at a podium, they moved their way around a dance floor.

"After the war, I went to work for the Metropolitan Transit Authority as a train signal maintainer… and then one night I went to a dance," recalled Scutari. It was at that dance that he met Fran Zorbo.

"As soon as I saw her, sky rockets went up."

"We went dancing. Then we went dancing again," said Fran Scutari. "Before I knew it, we were married."

It was after they settled in Syosset that Scutari joined and became the commander of the , leading to their organizing the parade.

"I'm sure that Gus and his wife must spend weeks doing prep work because on the day of the parade everything always goes off smoothly and like clockwork," said Laura Schultz from the.

"The parade could never happen without Gus."

As always, Scutari balanced the ceremony's lighter moments with somber, thoughtful ones, like when he ended with a statement from an unknown author.

"A veteran is someone who, at one point in his/her life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America,' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'"

As the crowd dispersed, Scutari strolled to the with Fran and the other veterans. His cover sat back on his head as he enjoyed a drink, surveyed the group that had gathered in the hall, and relaxed after his big day. Despite its exhausting nature, Scutari said he would keep coming back to organize the parade.

"I still love it," he said with a chuckle. "If I had to write a biography of my life, everybody I've ever met would be a part of it. I could meet a guy for 10 minutes and never see him again, but he's a part of my life!"

Every person he has ever spoken to, including the hundreds each year on Memorial Day, are part of Scutari's life. His ability to put a smile on everyone's face combined with a rare Patton-like leadership are appreciated by everyone he meets.

Except maybe for the owner of that Honda.