David Naleski, a man who could fix almost anything, dies at 74
David Naleski, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War and former chief mechanic for the diesel ferries and shop steward of Local 30 of the International Union of Operating Engineers at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, died Aug. 5 at his home in Southold. He was 74.
His brother-in-law, Grover Gatewood of Bridgehampton, N.Y., said that Naleski was diagnosed in March 2025 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. “Dave fought this terrible illness with stoic resilience,” Mr. Gatewood said. “His lifelong buoyant attitude never wavered, not for a moment.”
Born in 1952 in Worcester, Mass., Mr. Naleski joined the Navy after graduating from Worcester Boys Trade High School in 1971. He served for four years aboard the U.S.S. Duluth, an amphibious transport dock, during the Vietnam War.
A lithographer’s mate, he composed and printed the ship’s newspaper after answering the captain’s call for anyone aboard with printing experience. He later recounted, “I studied printing in high school, so when the Captain asked for a sailor with printing experience, I thought, it ain’t much, but why not me?”
For all the apparent quiet of his rating, Mr. Naleski’s naval service was anything but uneventful. The Duluth took part in Operation Frequent Wind, the hurried evacuation of Saigon at the war’s end in 1975.
The experience affected him deeply. He often described to his family the sight of rescue helicopters being pushed overboard after discharging their passengers, simply to make room on deck for more helicopters arriving from Saigon. More than 10 million dollars worth of helicopters were dropped into the sea.
Photos by David Naleski
One episode in particular stayed with him. A South Vietnamese officer, after landing his helicopter and delivering his passengers safely aboard, wanted to take off again and return to Saigon to rescue his wife. The Duluth’s captain refused. There was no time, he told the pilot; the helicopter had to go overboard to clear the deck for others.
The pilot was inconsolable.
Mr. Naleski spoke of the incident for the rest of his life, his family said, remembering it as something both disturbing and cruel.
For his service, he received the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with one Bronze Star, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon.
After returning to the United States, Mr. Naleski obtained his commercial driver’s license and became a long-haul trucker. While driving trucks, he studied diesel mechanics at the Baran Institute of Technology in East Windsor, Conn.
His career at Plum Island began in 1994.
Adam Douglas, a co-worker at the Animal Disease Center, recalled: “I worked with Dave every day for 10 years. He was a roll-up-his-sleeves- and get-the-job-done guy. A through-and-through union man. Once he became shop steward, he got 95 percent of the workers into the union. When Dave started, only 5 percent were members. He totally transformed our local.
“Dave loved being part of the union family. His heart and soul was in it, and he’s gonna be greatly missed.”
In 2002, technicians and plant operators at Plum Island went on strike for higher pay. Mr. Naleski was an outspoken advocate for the strike, which lasted more than two years, and believed the dispute involved considerably more than wages.
“We don’t know what they [LB&B Associates, based in Columbia, Md., the government subcontractors] are doing on the island,” he told The New York Times during the strike, “but we know they are not doing it with the proper safety.
While on strike, Mr. Naleski supported his family with an assortment of jobs: cement-truck driver, freelance diesel mechanic, handyman.
His union advocacy ultimately kept him away from his job at the Animal Disease Center for an additional three years after the strike was settled. Of his accomplishments during those years, he was particularly proud of helping increase membership in his union local from five members to 120.
Steven Broderick, an executive board member of Local 30, recalled: “Dave was probably the best shop steward we ever had. He was a pit bull when defending our members. He was loved at the union hall.
“Our Local 30 leader, Bill Lynn, started out as the agent for Plum Island, and he would always say, ‘If you want to see a real union man, that’s Dave Naleski.’”
After returning to Plum Island, Mr. Naleski became lead mechanic for the motor pool.
The mechanical abilities that served him professionally extended naturally into the rest of his life. He became a master carpenter and, over the course of 25 years, restored the 1912 house on Boisseau Avenue in Southold that he and his wife bought in 1999.
He was still improving the house as recently as May, even as his illness progressed.
Mr. Naleski and his wife, Rosabelle Gatewood Naleski, were married for 33 years. They met while she was working as a social worker in his hometown of Worcester.
In addition to his wife, now a registered nurse at Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, he is survived by their two daughters, Marianne Naleski O’Connor of Patchogue, N.Y., and Margaret Naleski Tripp of Tucson, Ariz.; a 3-year-old grandson, Ezra David Tripp of Tucson; a brother, Victor Naleski of West Hartford, Conn.; and two sisters, Joanne Gering of Rehoboth, Mass., and Ann Henry of Foster, R.I.
Another brother, Stephan Naleski, died in 2016.
A defiant Democrat and an unapologetic union man, Mr. Naleski proudly wore a Veterans for Harris cap in the years following the 2024 presidential election.
“Dave was the kind of old-fashioned, big-hearted, enormously capable man that is so sorely needed today,” Mr. Gatewood said. “We shall all miss him terribly — even those of us who never had the pleasure of knowing him.”
Visitation will be held Tuesday, Aug. 11, from 4 to 7 p.m. at DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Southold. A funeral mass will be celebrated Wednesday, Aug.12, at noon at St. Patrick’s Church in Southold, followed by burial at 2 p.m. at Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton.
