The following eulogy was written and delivered by Ray Perron on the occasion of Ossining Boat & Canoe Commissioning Day 2022.
Last month we lost one of our longest tenured members;
George Vincent Stafford
Better known to us as Vinny, he was 85 years old and when I ran into him a couple of weeks before he died, he was still working.
You can still see his van with all the ladders on it, parked in his driveway.
Vinny was a member of the OBCC since 1976 and in a few years he would’ve been our first 50 year member. Probably the longest in the club’s history.
When I was commodore in 1996 I asked the board of trustees to come
up with a motion to honor our first 20 year member.
Vinny became our first Lifetime member and every member since, who has 20 years in good standing, has been honored with the same title of Lifetime member.
He was our commodore on two separate occasions in the ‘70s.
Vinny was a veteran of the US Navy and a long time member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. He was also a member of the moose lodge and other local organizations.
While he was a member of the auxiliary, he would teach classes in boating safety and navigation.
Vinny was one of our first members to take a power boat up through the Champlain canal and into Lake Champlain. Paving the way for others to follow. And many of us did.
Along the way he would stay at boat clubs instead of commercial marinas. He collected many of our club burgees that used to hang on our meeting room wall.
Every time Vinny returned from one of this trips, he would hang up a damaged prop that he got as a result of running aground. He wasn’t afraid of venturing into the unknown. Some would say he was an inexperienced boater, I’d say he wasn’t afraid to try, it’s only a prop.
Vinny was our club electrician and one of the things he’s remembered for is repairing the overhead wires after an unexpecting sailboater would try to back his boat into his winter storage spot without dropping his mast first.
I remember at least three splices in the wires before we finally dug a trench and buried our supply cables.
After we’re done here I would ask that everyone raise a glass and toast;
Vinny Stafford
1936 – 2022
“Fair Winds and Following Seas”
Vinny