Ex-highway official H. Malkmes dies at 87

Long before everyone else went green, Harold Malkmes was recycling and composting.

"Prior to it being in vogue, he was recycling," said his younger son Michael Malkmes, 57, of Miller Place. "He used to recycle leaves, clippings."

Malkmes, Brookhaven's longtime town highway superintendent but a florist by trade, would lead Scout troops on tours at the wildlife and ecology center named for him in Holtsville.

"He loved flora and fauna," said John Randolph, the former Brookhaven town supervisor who worked with Malkmes during Malkmes' 34-year tenure.

Malkmes died of suspected heart problems last Thursday at a relative's home in Morgantown, N.C. He was 87.

He was born in Medford and grew up in Port Jefferson Station, where his parents operated a greenhouse. He graduated from Port Jefferson High School and married his high school sweetheart, Joyce Conforte. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force, serving in Italy during World War II as a tailgunner with the 459th Bombardment Group. He was promoted to sergeant and decorated for his service.

During some of his more frigid flights, Malkmes got frostbite on his hands and the back of his neck, his son said.

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When he returned from the war, Malkmes received an associate's degree from SUNY Farmingdale in ornamental horticulture and built the family business into Malkmes Florists and Greenhouses.

But his political calling came in 1964, when he was appointed Brookhaven parks commissioner. Within two years he was elected highway superintendent, a position he held until he retired in 2000.

"As superintendent of highways he was responsible for maintaining all the roads and plowing the snow. There were many major storms in 1977, when we had back-to-back 23-inch snowfalls," Randolph said. "The expressway looked like the Nazis leaving Stalingrad, with cars all over in the snow."

In 1984, Malkmes was the subject of county and federal probes into favoritism in awarding contracts but was never charged.

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He served as a mentor to scores of young Republican politicians, said John Jay LaValle, chairman of the Suffolk Republican Party who worked with Malkmes as a town board member.

"He built an army of supporters and really became a living legend," LaValle said.

In addition to his wife and son, Malkmes is survived by sisters Charlotte Swain and Nancy Bishop, both of Fort Pierce, Fla., son Jon, 62, of Water Mill, daughter Wendy Hammerstone, 64, of Morgantown, N.C., and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A service will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at All Souls Episcopal Church in Stony Brook. A memorial will be held afterward at 5 p.m. at the Meadow Club in Port Jefferson.