‘The Whole Town Is In Shock’: Floral Park Parish Mourns Usher Who Died Shoveling Snow

FLORAL PARK, NY. — The parish community at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church is in mourning Monday after a parishioner died while shoveling snow during Sunday’s storm.

Parish officials said 60-year-old Roger McGovern was a retired NYPD officer, an usher at the church, a member of the Knights of Columbus and had been a parishioner since moving to Floral Park in 1995. A Queens native, McGovern is survived by his wife and their three daughters, parish officials said.

“He was certainly a family man, a very good friend to all, very loyal, very helpful,” Parish Board member Matt Troy said Monday. “Anyone that needed help, Roger was there to step in and give a hand.”

Troy said no cause of death had been given as of Monday morning. The parish community gathered for a virtual prayer service in McGovern’s honor Sunday night, which Troy described as “somber.”

“The whole town is in shock, from one end to the other,” Troy said. “Roger was a genuinely good person, to so many different corners of the town…there are a lot of different groups that Roger touched, and he was so meaningful in all of those groups.”