ADELAIDE ATTARD

ATTARD--Adelaide Elizabeth. Adelaide Elizabeth Attard passed away on June 14, 2023, in Boca Raton, FL. She was 93 years old. She was born Adelaide Spitery on June 2, 1930 in Astoria, Queens, NY, to Consigliore and Elizabeth (nee Bonnici) Spitery, immigrants from Malta. Adelaide or "Addie" graduated from Julia Richman High School, and, in 1950 married Frank Attard, with whom she had two sons, Ronald and Gary. In 1960 Mrs. Attard was hired as a Supervisor in the Department of Recreation and Community Services for the town of Oyster Bay, Long Island. In 1971 she was appointed Commissioner of the Nassau County Department of Senior Citizen affairs - thereby becoming the first woman commissioner to be appointed to Nassau County government. The expanded duties of Commissioner lead Mrs. Attard to pursue and earn her BA degree in 1974 from SUNY, Old Westbury, and in 1978 she completed a Master of Professional Studies from The New School For Social Research, as well as a post- Master's Certificate in Gerontology from Adelphi University. Mrs. Attard's involvement in government was motivated by a concern for senior citizens and the problems they faced in an increasingly youth-focused culture. In 1975, after 25 years of marriage, Addie and Frank divorced. She met many new and interesting people, one of whom was Julian Fischgrund, a handsome and accomplished partner in the accounting firm Zigman, Levine & Fischgrund. They met in an elevator and shared a friendly conversation which turned out to be a very fortuitous meeting indeed, resulting in the couple's long and loving partnership of 30 years, ending with Julian's death in 2017. In 1981 Addie was appointed by then- United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Richard Schweiker, to serve on the National Advisory Committee for the White House Conference on Aging and was subsequently appointed by President Ronald Reagan to be Chairperson of the Federal Council on Aging for five years. In 1982 she travelled to Vienna, Austria, to serve as a senior adviser with the United States delegation at the United Nations World Assembly on Aging, and served on the Board of Directors of the American Association for International Aging from 1983 to 1992. These professional accolades, however, do not fully convey the kind of person Addie was, especially to those who knew her well. She had the gift of being interested in people; interested in connecting with them, no matter who they were, and listening to them with the desire, always, to promote greater understanding, and to be of possible assistance in resolving any kind of problem, large or small. She was caring, diplomatic, engaging, gracious, dependable and loving. People were naturally drawn to her, throughout all phases of her life. Her natural elegance was not founded upon arrogance. She had a dry and sometimes slightly mischievous wit that was tempered by her fair-minded pragmatism. She was slow to anger but not intimidated by adversity. Her way was to mend, not to divide. Addie is survived by her sons Ronald (Sara), and Gary (Chrystal); grandchildren Scott (Ashley) and Alyssa (Eric); step-grandchildren Craig, Brian, and Charles; and great-grandson Sawyer. - Services will be held on Sunday, July 9th, 2023 from 3pm until 7pm at A.L. Jacobsen Funeral Home, Inc., 1380 New York Avenue, Huntington Station, NY 11746.