By Zach Patberg
A worldly man, Mayersohn took a career path that branched out into a swath of disparate jobs and rich experiences. Beginning as a radio operator for the merchant marines during World War II, he then dabbled in the construction trade. Later, as a taxi driver, he organized the Queens Two-Way Radio Taxi Association. Retirement from his last position — as a fiscal officer with the city's Department of Transportation — only gave him more time to dedicate to his Flushing community and family.Along with being a member of Flushing's Electchester Jewish Center, Mayersohn spent long hours in his wife's office, helping the assemblywoman with her various duties. “He and Nettie were so intertwined,” said state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), Nettie Mayersohn's counterpart on the other side of the aisle in Albany and close friend. “They were made for each other.”That devotion spread to Ronald Mayersohn's two sons as well. Lee Mayersohn is a civil court judge living in Bayside while the other son, Jeffrey, is an entrepreneur in Boston.Stavisky remembers when the proud father witnessed Lee Mayersohn sworn in to the bench. “Ronnie just sat there, beaming. I asked, 'Aren't you eating?'” Stavisky said, referring to a buffet at the ceremony, to which he responded, “Who could eat?”Another more ominous consistency in Ronald Mayersohn's life, however, was his prolonged battle with health problems, from kidney failure to open-heart surgery to neck cancer. Yet he carried on valiantly.”Despite his problems, Ronnie did not let it slow him down at all,” Stavisky said.As a testament to his popularity, throngs of friends and family, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), packed into the Schwartz Brothers Funeral Home in Forest Hills June 15 at a service for Ronald Mayersohn.Said Stavisky of the atmosphere of the service: “It wasn't sad in the sense that everybody had good memories of Ronnie.”Ronald Mayersohn was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery.Reach reporter Zach Patberg by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
