North Fork Man Gives Back On D-Day, Helps WWII Vet Fix Up Home

MATTITUCK, NY — A crew of big-hearted PSEG volunteers, including a Mattituck man, gave back on the 75th anniversary of D-Day by returning to the Melville home of a World War II veteran to clean his house and help with necessary repairs.

On June 6, 20 PSEG Long Island employees returned to the home of Morris Koffer, 96, and his wife Edith, 89, to help with spring cleaning, rolling up their sleeves and tackling screen doors in need of repair, replacing a broken window pane, and discarding an old hospital bed that was no longer needed; interior railings were also repaired and painted, floors were mopped, bathrooms scoured and the kitchen scrubbed, PSEG said.

Some employees also joined Koffer in the basement to help him discard unwanted items that he and his family had collected for more than five decades. Books, some dating back to the 1940s, will be donated to a local senior center, PSEG said.

Volunteers, in their orange “PSEG Long Island Community Partners” shirts, were a welcome sight, Koffer said.

“I’m very happy for the help. I’m very surprised, very thankful,” he said. “I never expect anything from anyone because I lived my life helping others.”

Koffer was 21 years old and still training to become an Army Air Corps radio communication specialist when Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, PSEG said. After his wartime service, Koffer taught radio broadcasting, and later installed TV antennas until he was 86; he retired after he was injured in a fall, PSEG said.

PSEG Long Island volunteers also enjoyed sitting with Koffer, looking at photos, and listening to him share stories of his time in the Army Air Corps.

The most recent visit was not the first time that a PSEG Long Island cleanup team volunteered at the Koffer home; last year,a dozen volunteers cleared yard waste, twigs, old leaves and other debris from the property and inside the home, filling a 20-yard dumpster, PSEG said.

At the time, volunteers noticed the Koffers’ American flag was tattered; they removed it and hung a brand new flag. Since that day, when he returns home from medical appointments and sees the flag, Koffer says he thinks of the generosity of the volunteers, PSEG said.

“Being a veteran myself, I like to take any chance I get to help out another veteran,” said PSEG Long Island lineman and fellow Army veteran Tom Gross, of Mattituck. “It was an honor to help out Morris, a World War II veteran, because he was a part of what truly was the greatest generation.”

The PSEG Long Island team of volunteers has vowed to help the Koffers again in the future, too.

PSEG Long Island supports local charity events each year through the company’s Community Partnership Program; last year, PSEG Long Island employees logged 26,000 service hours, volunteering at 1,145 fundraising and community events to support more than 400 organizations, PSEG said.