Our featured guest at the April meeting will be journalist and author, Bill Bleyer. He was a prize-winning Newsday staff writer for 33 years before retiring in the summer of 2014 to co-write “Long Island and the Civil War: Queens, Nassau and Suffolk During the War Between the States,” to be published April 6, 2015 by History Press. He will have copies available for purchase and signing. In 1999-2000, he was one of four Newsday staff writers assigned full time to “Long Island: Our Story,” a year-long daily history of Long Island that resulted in three books and filled hundreds of pages in the newspaper.
Bleyer contributed a chapter to the anthology “Harbor Voices – New York Harbor tugs, ferries, people, places and more” published in 2008. And he was a contributor and editor of the Bayville history book published by Arcadia in 2009.
His work has been published in Civil War News, Naval History, Sea History, Lighthouse Digest and numerous other magazines and in The New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, The Toronto Star and other newspapers. He continues to freelance for magazines and Newsday.
Bleyer graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors in economics from Hofstra University, where he has been an adjunct teaching journalism and economics. He earned a master’s degree in urban studies at Queens College of the City University of New York. He lives in Bayville.
Two Spotlight Speakers will also have the opportunity to address attendees for five minutes each: Tami Racaniello of It’s Time to Get Fit will introduce us to her business, and Dr. Lorna Lewis, the Superintendent of POB schools, will talk about the 2015-2016 school budget and the election in May.
Be sure to join us for this valuable networking meeting. It includes a light breakfast: Only $5.00 for members and $10.00 for non-members.
We hope to see you there!