Freeport Authors: V

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Born in Freeport, Ken Valenti graduated from Freeport High School in 1981 and went to college at Fordham University.  He works as a reporter for one of the Gannett newspapers in Westchester County, the Journal News. 

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Dr. Harold Varmus, former Director of the National Institutes of Health and co-recipient of a Nobel Prize in 1989 for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City since January 2000.  He was born in Oceanside, the grandson of immigrants.  His grandparents, on his mother’s side founded Barasch’s children’s clothing store which was located on South Main Street.  He father established a medical practice in Freeport and was a medical officer at Jones Beach.  After graduating from Freeport High School in 1957, he graduated from Amherst College in 1961 with a B.A. in English.  He went on to Harvard and graduated with a M.A. degree in English in 1962.  He decided to pursue a career in medicine and received his M.D. from Columbia University in 1966.  He spent 23 years as a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical School.  In 1993, Varmus was named by President Clinton to serve as the Director of the National Institutes of Health, a position he held until the end of 1999.  He has authored over 300 scientific papers and four books.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Long time managing editor of The Leader, Edward A. Vasil was known as the “newspaperman’s newspaperman.”  He won the Lawrence Daley Journalistic Scholarship to Northeastern University.  During World War II, he served in the Navy.  He also was a radio commentator for WGBB, and CBS, among others.  As a publicist, he represented such personalities as Guy Lombardo, Alan Ladd, and Virginia Mayo.  His first byline column was printed in the Webster Times (Massachusetts) in 1932.  From then on his pieces have been published from coast to coast and as syndicated features in hundreds of newspapers such as the Springfield Republican, Boston Globe, New York Graphic, Long Island Graphic, Nassau Review-Star, Daily Mirror, New York Herald Tribune and the Los Angeles Examiner.

Michael C. Vassallo donated his book Agatha's Angel to the Freeport Memorial Library in December 2024.

[Biography by author]

Debut author Michael C. Vassallo has loved writing since childhood. His love and talent
became more apparent in the fourth grade when he and some school friends would write at
lunchtime on rainy days. It was the summer after the fourth grade when he set foot in the
village of Freeport for the first time, unaware that several years later, Freeport would serve a
very special purpose in his life.

Vassallo continued to write throughout the remainder of grammar school and high school, but it
was mainly funny stories about him and his classmates, and he even wrote a book chronicling
his high school adventures (which he no longer has). He wrote for the high school yearbook
and newspaper. In college at Villanova, he wrote random journal articles, one newspaper
article, and a few yearbook articles, but it was never anything serious. Then, after being
inspired by a Habitat For Humanity experience, he decided to try writing another book, spending
six years on it before he chose not to publish it. He worked in the corporate world for over 20
years, attended graduate school at Adelphi in Garden City, got married and had a family, yet he
always felt he was destined for greatness in the writing arena.

In 2009, the inspiration to write his first published novel, “Agatha’s Angel,” hit him when he
remembered an incident seven years prior during which he met a stranger on the Long Island
Rail Road who he believes may have been an angel due to her soft-spoken, yet inhumanly
genuine mannerisms. From what he remembers, he believes the stranger, whom he only met
that one time, claimed she was from Freeport.

As he penned the novel, Vassallo decided he needed to spend time in Freeport to gain more
inspiration. Every three months, he would take a day off from work to attend church at Our Holy
Redeemer, eat breakfast at the Imperial Diner, and spend time in Freeport. That day off would
culminate in him sitting in the library writing scenes for his novel.

In 2020, when COVID-19 broke loose, Vassallo, then unemployed, decided he needed to get
out of his house. Remembering his love for Habitat For Humanity, he decided to apply for a job
at Home Depot, and as it turned out, the Home Depot in Freeport offered him a job, which
turned out to be one of the best experiences of his life. Vassallo was delighted to return to this
enigmatic village, even though it would no longer be to visit, but now to work and to serve the
community. He believes his mysterious angel friend may have wanted him to go back to the
town where she allegedly came from and give back to it.

When he first started working there, his work in “Agatha’s Angel” was on hold, but being in
Freeport on a more regular basis revived his inspiration to continue working on it and gave him
an extraordinary purpose in life even besides that. “It really opened my eyes and enabled a part
of me which had been dormant for so long to finally come out,” he says. “I felt in a way that that
was my chance to let the real Michael Vassallo loose. Not only was the Freeport Home Depot
loads of fun and I had a lot of laughs and enjoyed delving more into the home maintenance

industry, but the people were wonderful – very charismatic and welcoming. It’s as if I was made
to go there.”

Although he has moved on from his Freeport glory days at Home Depot to pursue a different
career, Vassallo fondly remembers it and is grateful to Freeport for serving as a beacon of light,
love, and hope. He feels that his time in Freeport over the years has not only enabled him to
come to life in a much more vivid way but has also provided him with an extra opportunity to
carry on the mission of the “train angel.”

Vassallo lives in Hicksville with his wife and two children. Relieved to have the novel completed,
Vassallo now concentrates more fully on enjoying his time with them. He loves movies, music,
attending various church events, attending events at his children’s school, telling and hearing
great jokes, and now promoting his novel. He hopes to continue writing down the road.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Born in Armenia, Quindio, Colombia, Luz Velazquez graduated from the College “Departmental de la Merced” in Bogata, Colombia in 1968 as a teacher.  She immigrated to the United States in 1972 and worked as a teaching assistant at Atkinson School and as an adult education teacher.  She has participated in the New York Book Expo held in Astoria, Queens.

Click here for books by this author.

Millicent Vollono is the author The Five Towns.  Her passion for the history of the Five Towns is the result of her many years workings as a librarian at the Hewlett Woodmere Public Library.