The Throggs Neck Merchants Association will honor the late Ben Randazzo at its ninth annual dinner dance.
Randazzo, who passed away in fall 2015, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
He was a lifelong Bronxite and the chief of staff to current Assemblyman Michael Benedetto.
Randazzo, born in 1941, attended Mount St. Michael Academy and went on to work for AT&T before joining the family business, Randazzo’s Fish Market, on Arthur Avenue.
He later ran the Shelter Cove Marina by Clarence Avenue with his brother Cosmo for more than two decades until selling it in the early 2000s.
Randazzo would later go on to work for Benedetto on a part time basis before becoming his chief of staff in 2007.
Benedetto fondly remembered his friend, “Ben Randazzo was one of the those people – and we have many of them throughout the area – who went out of his way to serve his community and went out of his way very unnoticed over the years.
The assemblyman said people like Randazzo are “the backbone of our society.”
Randazzo passed away of a stroke while preparing for the annual Throggs Neck Halloween Parade.
Benedetto said Randazzo devoted his time to community events like the Halloween Day Parade and the lighting of the Throggs Neck Christmas Tree at Derosa O Boyle’s Triangle.
The assemblyman added Randazzo’s legacy will always be most remembered around those holidays.
Stephen Kaufman, TNMA president, also lauded Randazzo, calling him a “wonderful person” and “a really staunch community leader.”
“He did good deeds for all of us living in the Throggs Neck community,” added Kaufman.
Other honoree’s at this year’s dinner and dance include Benny Diaspara for Business Man of the Year, Lily Do for Business Woman of the Year and Lisa Sorin for the Excellence Award.
Kaufman said the dinner gives the association the chance to recognize “people who have done special things for the neighborhood.”
He added it brings the community together “to share an evening of fun and a good time.”
The TNMA Dinner Dance will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Villa Barone Manor off the Throgs Neck Expressway.
