Eileen McFetridge

A Private Cremation was held, interment of cremated remains will be Saturday, November 3rd at 11:00 am at Nassau Knolls Cemetery 500 Port Washington Blvd. Port Washington, NY 11050.  Officiating the graveside service will be Rev. Ken Nelson.

Eileen Elizabeth McFetridge, formerly of Mill Neck, passed on Monday, October 22, 2018. A child development expert, she devoted her life to helping children. She was born on November 20, 1932 in Glen Cove Hospital, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, with a sunny disposition. She grew up on the George M. Moffitt estate next to Green Vale School until 1939, when the family moved to the Harriett Laidlaw- Louise Backus Estate in Sands Point where her father was superintendent until 1966. Her father, James McFetridge and mother Jennie Dempsey were from Northern Ireland. They lived three miles apart in County Antrim but didn’t meet until the 1920’s on her brother William Dempsey’s farm near Rochester, NY. Eileen had a bucolic childhood in Sands Point and attended Port Washington Schools graduating in 1949. She attended New Paltz Teachers College graduated with a B.S. She taught first grade at the Brookville School under Lillian Wells of Greenport, NY. McFetridge helped form the Community Action Council of Port Washington. In 1965, she directed the first summer of Head Start at the Merriman School. She directed her second summer of Head Start at Sands Point Synagogue. She left teaching at Brooksville to help organize Day Care Centers in Nassau under County Executive Eugene Nickerson. After opening a Day Care Center on Holly Patterson grounds, Eileen moved to the Salvation Army Day Care Center in Hempstead, which she expanded and directed for 10 years. She then moved to the NYC Public Schools to teach full day kindergarten at PS-52 in Jamaica Queens. She retired in 1988 to help her father reach age 101 years in his Mill Neck home, looking down on Oyster Bay Harbor, which she inherited, and lived in until 2002.

She moved to Peconic Landing in Greenport, NY attracted by the indoor swimming pool, as a lifelong swimmer in Long Island Sound. In Greenport she volunteered at the historic society house. She served as Vice President of the local Day Care Center Board and supported CAST. She formed a non-profit organization to develop workforce affordable housing on the North Fork. Eileen participated in many community affairs. She was active in Oyster Bay-East Norwich with the Youth Council, CSAC, Stand for Children and in the 1980’s organized The Interreligious and Human Needs Council of North East Nassau, still operating as a local program. Eileen was a lifetime member of Glen Cove, Port Washington, Oyster Bay, East Norwich and Greenport United Methodist Churches. She served on many committees from Church choir at four years of age to Sunday School Superintendent as well as NY Conference District Mission Offices. A world traveler, Eileen visited all 75 of her first cousins, including those in Ireland, Australia, and Denmark, as well in the United States. Her memorial service will be held on Friday, Nov. 2 in the library of Peconic Landing, Greenport, from 1 to 3 p.m. The interment of her cremains will take place on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 11 a.m., at Nassau Knolls Cemetery on Port Washington Blvd., next to her parents. Caption Eileen McFetridge smiled at life, as she worked to help others.

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