Memorial Day Weekend Spotlight: New Mattituck Community Room To Memorialize Local WWII Vets

World War II veteran U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Peter Krupski, who died of wounds received in action at Guadalcanal in 1943, and U.S. Army Air Corps Pvt. Russell Penny, who was killed in action at Hickam Field in Hawaii in 1941, will be honored at a 10 a.m. dedication ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park's new community room on Saturday.

Mattituck Park District Commissioner Doris McGreevy said  Pvt. Penny was supposed to have a beach on the Long Island Sound named after him at the time. But that never happened.

"It's just due," she said. "Gone but not forgotten, you know."

U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop, State Sen. Kenneth LaValle, Legis. Ed Romaine, and Southold Supervisor Scott Russell will join the park district commissioners, cadets from the North Fork Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, and the conductor of the 319th State of Liberty Army Band — who will travel all the way from Queens — at the ceremony, which is open to the public.

The room was converted from a garage – which was not up to code –and opened for use as a community room this week. Local architect Sanford Hanauer designed the new room, and the murals hanging on the walls were painted and dedicated by Mattituck High School students.