David J. Mahar

Feb. 20, 1936 - Jan. 2, 2020

David J. Mahar, of Wilson, the former owner of Frontier Stone, died Thursday surrounded by family following a short illness. He was 83.

Mr. Mahar was a lifelong resident of Western New York. He was born in Gasport and graduated from DeSales Catholic High School in Lockport in 1953. He graduated from Cornell University in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering.

At Cornell's ROTC program, he attended the 82nd Airborne School in Fayetteville, N.C. After his discharge from the Army, he served as a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve in the early 1960s.

He learned to farm growing up on his family's farm, and two of his favorite experiences also involved agriculture. In 1955, at the age of 19, Mr. Mahar won the Tractor Operators Contest at the New York State Fair. The Niagara County Jaycees named him Niagara County's Outstanding Young Farmer in 1966.

Mr. Mahar was the manager of Lakeside Farms, a large dairy, vegetable and fruit farm in Ransomville, from 1963 to 1969.

He went to work in 1969 for Frontier Stone in Lockport, which operates quarries in the region. He and two co-workers, Bob Pass and Chuck Loiacano, bought Frontier Stone in 1983. They sold the business in 1997 to Redland Niagara.

In 1967, he married the former Mary Ann O'Connor and they had four children. She died in 1979.

He married the former Joan Van Arsdale in 1992.

Mr. Mahar was a member of St. Brendan on the Lake Parish.

In addition to his second wife, he is survived by two sons, Michael and John; two daughters Maureen and Meg Thrall; two brothers, Jim and Larry; and a sister, Linda McDonough.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Brendan on the Lake, 345 Lake St., Wilson.