Vincent “Vinny” Arcuri Jr., who has served on Queens Community Board 5 for almost 50 years, received an award from State Sen. Joe Addabbo for “outstanding leadership” and his many years of service to the community. The certificate presented by Addabbo contains a long list of all of Arcuri’s accomplishments during his decades of public service.
First appointed in 1975, Arcuri led the board as chairperson for two terms lasting 33 years, before being voted out earlier this year.
“He sincerely cares about the greater good, and never showed any self-interest as chairperson,” District Manager Gary Giordano said. “After he retired from work, he would come into our office and just say ‘What do you need help with?’”
Arcuri was born in Brooklyn before moving to Glendale with his family at the age of 5, where he has lived ever since. The New York native made his living in the construction industry, climbing the corporate ladder and becoming an executive with large contractors such as Turner, Trishman, and AMEC. After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Arcuri played a leadership role aiding the rescue and clean-up efforts at Ground Zero.
A family man, Arcuri had four children with his wife Lois, who passed away in 2012. Arcuri’s son, Vincent Jame Arcuri, spent much of his childhood on the construction site with his father and siblings.
“All four of them would come, ride the elevator all the way to the top,” Arcuri said. “They didn’t walk the beams with me though.”
At the “topping-out” ceremony unveiling the Lipstick Building, located at 885 Third Ave. and 53rd at Third in Manhattan, Arcuri brought his son up, then 15, to sign one of the steel beams alongside him and the other crew members, a long-time tradition amongst construction workers.
“I turned my face toward him with an expression of doubt, but his enthusiasm instantly reassured me,” wrote Vincent James Arcuri in a personal essay published in Engineering News Record. “High in the Manhattan skyline—the same skyline my father shaped—he and I share a small piece of territory on that steel beam.”
Among his other achievements, Arcuri founded 104th Precinct Civilian Observation Patrol (G-COP) and volunteered with the Kiwanis Club of Glendale, where he received the Legion of Honor commendation for his 35 years working with the nonprofit. At the age of 85, Arcuri remains active on several other advisory boards — he is vice chairperson of the Board of Trustees at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, and vice chairperson of the Queens County Conservative Party.
A man of few words, when asked why he spent so much of his life serving his community, Arcuri kept his answer short: “Someone had to do it.”
