Dennis O'Doherty, Sr.

Born in Limerick, Ireland, Dennis O’Doherty, Sr. graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School in Brooklyn and worked for a law firm in New York City before joining the U.S. Army on January 25, 1943. He trained at Fort Jackson, South Carolina before going overseas on April 22, 1944, where he was assigned to Troop C, 2nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized).

While overseas, Corporal O’Doherty was assigned to the Third U.S. Army as a Corporal squad leader and also drove a machine gun jeep. Corporal O’Doherty served under General George S. Patton’s command from the beaches of Normandy to Czechoslovakia and received five Bronze Stars for participating in the campaigns and battles of Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, the Rhineland and Central Europe.

After the War, Corporal O’Doherty graduated from Sampson College and the American Institute of Banking and began a career in governmental and corporate finance marketing. In 1968, Corporal O’Doherty, along with his wife, Joanne, and others, bought the Suffolk County News, a 100-year-old weekly newspaper with a circulation of 10,000 readers. Corporal O’Doherty set up a newspaper archival department and, along with the Sayville Public Library, developed a microfilm section for the newspaper for reference and research purposes. These records are still presently available on microfilm at the Sayville Public Library.

In 1972, Corporal O’Doherty was elected to the New York State Legislature, representing the people of Suffolk County’s Fifth Assembly District. He has served on the Board of Dowling College, as a trustee of Long Island Health and Hospital Planning, the Boy Scouts of America, and as Director of the South Shore Boys Club. He is a member of the Islip Town Planning Board, the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Corporal O’Doherty resides in Sayville, Long Island and is the father of two children and one grandchild.