By Alex Robinson
A deceased Hollis Hills fire marshal who has already had a Manhattan bar named after him might also get his name on a playground in Fort Totten.
The Community Board 7 Parks Committee unanimously voted last week to name the playground in honor of Martin “Woody” McHale, who was driving home from work Christmas Eve 2012 when he suffered a massive heart attack.
“He was well-liked across the board. He was a fireman’s fireman and never left the firehouse,” said Randall Wilson, commanding officer at the fire marshals’ base in Fort Totten, where McHale worked.
Wilson wrote a letter to CB 7 in November asking for support to have the playground renamed.
The play structure, where McHale used to bring his twin boys, is across the street from the fire marshals’ facility.
“Woody always would ‘police’ the area, picking up any litter and making it safe, not only for his sons but for other children who used the playground,” Wilson said in his letter.
McHale served on the FDNY for 23 years before suffering a premature death at 50.
He first joined the Fire Department in 1989 and was promoted to fire marshal in 1999.
McHale was physically a large man and captained the department’s football team.
“He was like a kid that never grew up. He always had a smile on his face, but he also took everything he did seriously,” said Gene Kelty, chairman of CB 7 and a battalion chief at the Fire Department, who knew McHale. “If you needed him, he was always there.”
He was so well-loved that a bar on West 14th Street in Manhattan even made McHale their namesake him while he was still alive.
“He’d go into a restaurant, become friendly and they would name a sandwich after him. He was that type of guy,” Wilson said.
McHale suffered his heart attack while driving in his Chevrolet Silverado in 2012 and crashed into a tree a few hundred feet from his house, police said. He was taken to North Shore University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to cops.
The Fire Department determined McHale’s death was in the administrative line of duty since he was on his way home from work, where he first started feeling ill that day, Wilson said.
The full community board is set to vote on the naming at its March 10 meeting. Kelty abstained from last week’s vote due to the conflict of interest.
The spokesman for the city Parks Department said he could not comment on the playground.
“He only had a few short years to spend with his sons. Many of those days were at the playground in Fort Totten,” Wilson said. “So what better way to honor a man than to let his children know what they meant to him?”
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
