Freeport Authors: W

George Wallace was a newspaper publisher in Freeport.

[Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian]

He was a lawyer, justice and Republican politician as well as a member of the Prohibition Party in 1874.  He served nine years as Justice of the Peace in Hempstead and one term as an assemblyman from the 3^rd District (1897).  While serving in Albany, he was responsible for the passage of a bill to compel New York City to dredge Freeport Creek and other creeks in the Town of Hempstead to a depth of three feet at low tide.  Because of this, he had a strong following among the baymen for holding the City responsible for damage to the oyster beds and ice ponds.  He was a native of Canada but lived in Freeport since his youth.  He was counsel to the Town of Hempstead Board as well as Village President from 1900 to 1902.  He was a member of the Methodist Church and a foreman (1897) of the Ever Ready Hose Company.  He was counsel for the village and also served as the police justice.  For years, (48) he owned the South Side Observer at Rockville Centre and before that the Picket newspaper in 1870.  He was also responsible for the bill which gave Nassau County a charter and cut it off from Queens in 1899.

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Wallace George

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Jennifer Walz is a holistic health care provider who holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology from Molloy College in Rockville Centre (1983), and a Master of Traditional Oriental Medicine degree from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, NY.  She learned to swim in Casino Pool and attended Our Holy Redeemer and Freeport High School, graduating with the class of 1978.  She now lives in Dallas Texas.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

John Ward grew up in Roosevelt and graduated from Holy Trinity High School.  He studied art at the School of Visual Arts in New York.  He was a winner of the Parents’ Choice Award.  He teaches djembe and dun dau, rhythms from Guinea and West Africa.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Born in Harlem, Dennis Watlington was addicted to heroin at 13, involved with gangs and ended up in jail when he was 17.  In the interim, through a neighborhood boys club and other interested people, he ended up at Hotchkiss boarding school on a scholarship.  From there he entered NYU.  In 1979 he wrote and directed his play, Bullpen but soon succumbed to crack.  Realizing its futility, he entered a rehab center.  During this period he met Gail Sheehy who wrote a chapter about him in her book, Passages.  He is now a scriptwriter, screenwriter, producer and actor and contributes articles to magazines.  One of his documentary films (“The Untold West : The Black West”) won an Emmy.  Before moving to Connecticut, he lived in Freeport (1990).

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Denton L. Watson was born in Jamaica, West Indies and immigrated Watson was born in Jamaica, West Indies and immigrated to the United States in 1956.  He attended the University of Hartford and earned his B.A. in 1964 and his master’s from Columbia University’s School of Journalism in 1965.  He began his career in journalism in the composing room of the Hartford Courant which he left to study in Chile on an Inter American Press Association Scholarship.  He worked for United Press International in New York in 1968.  He is a former director of public relations as well as labor secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and now is an associate professor at SUNY College at Old Westbury.   He is a member of the Freeport Memorial Library’s Board of Trustees.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Adele Weiner graduated with the Freeport High School class of 1970  After many years as an associate dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University, Dr. Adele Weiner returned to the classroom as a professor in human services at Metropolitan College of New York, Audrey Cohen College of Human Service.  She received her B.A. from SUNY Binghamton, M.S.W. from Adelphi University and her Ph.D. from the State University of New Jersey, Rutgers.  She taught in undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs as well as in a maximum security prison and for the military.  Her research of HIV and streetwalkers has led to several publications including a chapter in The Encyclopedia of Social Work and many presentations at conferences.  She is involved with the International World AIDS Conferences.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

John Westermann is the son of the former chairman of Hazeltine Corporation.  He was educated at Walt Whitman High School and attended Trinity College in Hartford for three years.  Since his ranking was 312 out of 314, he dropped out (and his parents refused to pay) and went to the Nassau County Police Academy.  He was a Freeport Police Officer for about 15 years and he was decorated three times for excellence and bravery.  While he was on the force, he took a course in writing at the New School for Social Research and started writing in 1979.  His last day as a police officer was September 1, 1987, when he injured his back.  Westermann has taught fiction writing seminars at Dowling College, the Latin School in Chicago, and the Boston Center for Adult Education.  He has appeared on NPR, New York and Co., WABC-TV, and News 12 on Long Island.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

J. Maynard Wettlaufer was a most beloved band director for in 1964.
Freeport High School.  He attended Colgate University where he majored in education, psychology, chemistry and mathematics and received his B.A. in 1928.  He was a director of music in both Illinois and Pennsylvania.  He returned to school at the Sherwood School of Music in Chicago for his B.A. in music (1931).  He came to Freeport in 1936 as director of music.  In 1945, he was awarded an M.S. in education at Hofstra University.  He retired from Freeport

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Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Martin Weyrauch’s career began as a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle in 1908 after graduating from Union College.  His law degree earned his law degree at Brooklyn Law School in 1911.  He came to Freeport in 1918.  An editor and publisher of the New York Evening Graphic, he was involved in a debate in 1927 with the editor of the Nation concerning “Are Tabloid Newspapers a Menace?”  Thereafter, he was the managing editor of the Brooklyn Eagle in the 1930s.  He also was, since 1936, a law professor at Brooklyn Law School.  He served as Village of Freeport Counsel from 1945 to 1955.  During his tenure he was appointed to the Steering Committee for the State Conference of Mayors.  He helped write 22 bills passed in the 1955 State legislative session.  He also was involved with the Freeport Inter-Faith Clergy Council and was a member of Spartan Lodge No. 956.

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Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Born in Geneva, New York, Maxwell C. Wheat, Jr. attended Hobart and William Smith College where he received a B.A. in English.  He earned an M.A. in English from NYU as well as a M.S. in English from SUNY New Paltz.  His journalism career started with the Geneva Daily Times.  He moved to Freeport in 1957.  He has taken additional graduate studies in both English and marine science at SUNY Stony Brook, and CW Post College.  For many years, he taught English at Weldon Howitt Middle School in Farmingdale.  He gives workshops on how to write poetry, using nature as the resource.  He has done workshops for the New York State Marine Education Association, Science Council of New York City, National Marine Educator’s Association, and for seasonal naturalists at Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Fire Island National Seashore.  He is listed with Poets and Writers.  He writes articles for the Long Island Forum.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Gordon Eliot White grew up in Freeport between 1938 and 1950 when his family moved to New Jersey in his junior year.  He continued his education at Cornell (B.A. 1956) and Columbia (M.S. 1957.)  While in high school, he was a reporter and photographer for the National Daily Review-Star and the Freeport Leader.  He has covered the space and military programs and United States politics both here and abroad for a variety of newspapers and retired in 1988.  White has been a “racing fan, reporter, crewmember, driver, owner and historian for sixty years, since his father took him to see a race in 1939. He was a legman for racing broadcaster Ted Webber in the 1940s, contributed to Illustrated Speedway News, and worked as a crewmember for his neighbor, Bill Schindler.”  He has been an advisor on auto racing for the Smithsonian and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and served on committees of the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Mary Ann Hackett Wilder was a nurse, teacher and counselor.  In 1986 she was an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College Graduate School of Guidance and Counseling.  She was a registered nurse with two master’s degrees from NYU in education and public administration.  She volunteered for the National Save-a-Life League, a suicide prevention organization.  She is recognized in Who’s Who in American Women.  Active in the community, she ran for Village trustee in 1977.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Born and raised in Freeport, William L. Wisner was a 1931 graduate of Freeport High School.  On his mother’s side, he can trace his family to the Raynors who came to Long Island in 1624.  He graduated from Columbia University in 1935 as a pre-med student.  Instead, he was a fisherman and a boatman and wrote books and articles on fish and the sea.  His columns appeared in Newsday, Daily Mirror, the New York Post, and the New York World Telegram.  He was a member of the Rod and Gun Editors Association, the Outdoor Writers Association and the Boating Writers International.

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Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Cyrus Wood was a writer, lyricist and performer on both Broadway and in the movies.  He mainly wrote the book for plays and musical comedies many of which were produced by the Shuberts: Lovely Lady, Maytime, Dew Drop Inn and others.  For the movies he did the same starting with the silents.  They include: Paree, Paree; The Midas Touch; and Sally, Irene, and Mary.  Some of the stars who appeared in his movies were June Allyson, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Joan Crawford and Bob Hope.  His son Cyrus graduated from Freeport High School in 1935.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Dale Wright moved to Freeport in 1988.  He attended NYU and worked at the Freeport Memorial Library c. 2002.  He had taught at New York Tech, Hofstra and the Columbia School of Journalism.  Wright had been employed as a news editor with the Washington Bureau of NBC and as a Public Affairs Officer in Washington with the Office of Economic Opportunity.  His book (Harvest) won a citation from the American Newspaper Guild, a Heywood Broun Memorial Award and the Paul Tobenkin award.  He worked as an editor of Ebony and Jet magazines and was a staff writer for the New York World-Telegram & Sun.  His career has had three parts:– 1- newspaper reporter, author, editor – 2- public relations for government and agencies -3- owner of a public relations firm.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Jonathan E. Wright was born in Freeport and graduated from Freeport High School in 1973.  He attended Nassau Community Collge and went to work with his father in the construction business.  He has been a member of the Freeport Fire Department for a number of years as were a number of his family members.  He has been a member of his church council and coached his sons’ football team.  He was part of the crew who worked at Ground Zero where he sustained physical and emotional injuries.  He has returned to college and is working on his master’s degree in either journalism or social work.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Milton Wright earned an LL.B., was a member of the New York Bar Association and was an associate editor of the Scientific American.

Chalsian Wright-Marston is author of Ju Bear: Mommy's Little Teddy Bear. She donated her book to the library in July 2021.

Tyisha Wilson is the author of Lost In the Book. She donated her book to the library in November 2021.

[Biography by author]

My name is Tyisha Wilson, and I have been an educator for over a decade. My passion, dedication and love for teaching allows me to exhaust all options to ensure that all students reach their best and highest potential. My personal philosophy is that all children learn best through love, compassion, and great leadership. I have a dream of helping students around the world and I’ve been blessed with the opportunity of waking up every day and loving what I do.

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C. E. Whitaker III is the author of the books  The Red Rover: Origins and Clash of the Celestials.  He donated copies of his books to the library in September 2019.

[Biography by author]

A writer/director/producer living in Los Angeles, C.E Whitaker III published his debut young adult novel, THE RED ROVER: ORIGINS in May 2019 and the sequel CLASH OF THE CELESTIALS in July 2019. He was selected as a finalist in the Warner Bros Emerging Film Director’s Workshop in 2016. In recent years, he has optioned a sports feature as well as a political drama pilot. He has also written, directed and produced two (2) short films.

In 2019, he worked in London on the Guy Ritchie-directed feature, THE GENTLMEN, for Miramax/STX, starring Colin Farrell, Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam & Hugh Grant and the Sir Kenneth Branagh-directed fantasy adventure, ARTEMIS FOWL; 2018, saw him work on the Jessica Chastain led-feature, EVE, directed by Tate Taylor in Boston; 2017 was busier with the Dan Gilroy-directed film ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ., starring Denzel Washington & Carmen Ejogo; the Chicago-based feature, WIDOWS, directed by Steven McQueen starring Viola Davis, Liam Neeson, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Robert Duvall, Brian Tyree Henry & Daniel Kaluuya; and the live-action re-imagining of Disney’s DUMBO directed by Tim Burton, starring Danny DeVito, Michael Keaton & Eva Green in London.