Michael James Sweeney

 Michael J. (Mike) Sweeney was born in New York, NY in the Washington Heights neighborhood on December 12, 1946. His parents Gerard Sweeney and Juel Corbett Sweeney both came from the Minooka section of Scranton, PA. They shortly thereafter moved to Valley Stream, NY where he grew up. His younger brother Francis Xavier (Frank) Sweeney was born in 1952. Mike graduated from Valley Stream Central High School in 1964 and started attending Nassau Community College. In 1965, he met Judy Dellefemine from Oceanside, NY.

In February of 1966 Mike enrolled in the US Marine Corps. After completing basic training at Paris Island, SC, he was deployed with the 7th Marines at Chu Lai Airbase and Da Nang Airbase, South Vietnam from August 1966 - September 1967, where he served with distinction as a Communications Center Operator and received a National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal and a Rifle Marksman Badge. While he was in Vietnam, Mike and Judy regularly wrote and sent audio tapes to each other to  keep in touch across the vast distance separating them. Upon Mike’s homecoming to the United States, he and Judy became engaged. On March 7, 1970, they were married.

Mike and Judy lived first in Laurelton and then Valley Stream in the first years of their marriage while Mike worked to establish himself in a career on Wall Street in the early 1970s. In 1972 his first child, Tara Elizabeth Sweeney, was born. Not long after, Mike received an opportunity to work on the Commodities Exchange in Philadelphia, PA. Unfortunately, the 1974 recession resulted in Mike being laid off two weeks after the birth of his second child John, but on the other hand, this allowed the family to return to their home on Long Island and be near their extended family. After a few years in Island Park, Mike and Judy moved into the Lynbrook home they would live in ever since in July 1977.

In 1978, Mike started working at Bear Stearns, where he would continue to work until retirement from the Securities industry in 2002. His children grew to adulthood and went on to college and law school. In his spare time he used his talent for do-it-yourself home remodeling to completely restore and rebuild his Lynbrook home, mostly through his own designs and hard work. After leaving Wall Street, he continued to trade stocks on his own as well as working as a real estate broker. In his later years, he received satisfaction from caring for his Siberian Husky dogs and his garden and most of all, from the love of his whole family who are forever grateful for the constant tower of strength he was in their lives, and the loving example he set for them.