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VOL. 61 NO. 3
JANUARY 15 - 21, 2026
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Still painting every day, even at age 90 instructor said. “He’ll never be an artist.” “So I continued on my own,” Robert “Captain Bob” Bozek Bozek said. “I never stopped stood surrounded by 159 of his painting.” At Oceanside High School, paintings — a lifetime of creativity that, for decades, lived he wanted to focus on art, but quietly alongside a career in no such pro g ram existed. newspaper production and a Instead he made his own path, taking every art-related class second life of charter boating. The Oceanside available — history Library honored of ar t, printing, the 90-year-old mechanical drawOceanside native ing and photograon Jan. 7 with an phy — while also artist’s reception designing sets for and a presentation school theater proin its lower-level ductions and workgallery, celebrating ing on yearbook both Bozek’s work layouts. His efforts and his artistic ear ned him the journey — one that ROBERT ‘CAPTAIN school’s first-ever began in childhood, arts degree, and his detoured and has BOB’ BOZEK classmates dubbed continued in recent him “Oceanside’s years with renewed energy. Rembrandt” in the 1953 year“It was my lifelong dream book, when he graduated. when I was a kid,” Bo zek That foundation led to a recalled. “I wanted to be an art- 43-year career at Newsday, ist.” where Bozek worked in producBorn and raised in Oceans- tion and layout before retiring ide, he began painting at age 12, as advertising production manunder his mother’s guidance. ager. Though his professional Early encouragement, however, life was rooted in journalism, was not universal. A profes- he never strayed far from art. sional instructor advised RobDuring the 1950s, Bozek and ert’s mother to abandon the investig ative re por ter Bob idea. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 “Save your money,” the
By ABIGAIL GRIECO
agrieco@liherald.com
Courtesy Donna Kraus
Q and U make it official Dawn Goldberg’s kindergarten class at School No. 6 ELC celebrated a special wedding on Jan. 9, honoring the letters Q and U, which students learned “stick together like glue” in words such as quick, queen and quiet. They took on roles from bride and groom to guests, danced around the gym with bubbles and finished the celebration with a festive classroom snack.
OHS senior gains aviation experience By ABIGAIL GRIECO agrieco@liherald.com
For most high school students, the classroom, homework and extracurriculars define their weekdays. But for 17-year-old Nicholas DeBono, a senior at Oceanside High School, part of the school weekis spent at an aviation academy. DeBono is one of two students from Nassau BOCES Barry Tech interning at Icarus Flying Academy, in Farmingdale, where he is gaining hands-on experience in aviation operations. Once a week he works alongside professionals managing the academy’s student accounts, scheduling flights, conducting stock inventory and preparing study materials for aspiring private pilots. “It was a highly competitive process to secure the internship, since I had to interview with the chief flying instructor of Icarus Flying Acade-
my, Edwin Torres,” DeBono said. “I’m honored and grateful for the opportunity they provided to participate in this internship.” DeBono, who started the inter nship last November, has also contributed to the academy’s Icarus Junior Aviator Program, for children ages 8 to 12. He and fellow intern Emry Anataki, of Plainedge High School, completed activities that are part of the FAA’s Junior Aviator Curriculum, offering feedback and helping create engaging exercises for the younger students. “It feels great, because I know a lot of people are focusing on school and maybe a part-time job, but I’m doing this internship during school hours,” DeBono said. “It’s kind of different, and I’m learning so much.” At Barry Tech, in Westbury, students explore a variety of hands-on career paths. Classes simulate real work environments, from airplane hanCONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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t’s been very interesting, this little trip that I’m taking late in my life.