By Nathan Brown Times Herald-Record
Jennifer Feely-Artola looks over family photographs of her father Tuesday with her son Justin in her Mount Hope home. Her father Frank Feely was killed in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Chet Gordon,Times Herald-Record
MOUNT HOPE — After Frank Feely was killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, his family and friends wanted to find a way to keep his memory alive.
A golf tournament, with the proceeds donated to the Otisville Little League, seemed like a natural way to honor the golf lover, Mets fan and Little League umpire.
“We wanted to find something that was a way for us all to get together (and) have a more happy, fun day,” said Jennifer Feely-Artola, the oldest of his four daughters.
This Saturday will mark the sixth annual Frank Feely Memorial Golf Outing, at the Lochmor Golf Course in Loch Sheldrake.
Feely, who was 41 and lived in the Town of Wallkill, was a vice president at Marsh & McLennan. He worked on the 98th floor of Tower 1.
His brother, Mike Feely, and friend Dan Palermo helped put the outing together. Originally, all the money raised went to the Otisville Little League. Frank Feely was vice president of the league for a while, and also umpired.
His daughters all started playing Little League as soon as they were old enough. Even when he wasn’t an umpire, he would still come to all her games, Feely-Artola said.
She said that when she was born, and the doctor said she was healthy, with 10 fingers and 10 toes, her father replied, “Great, she’ll be the best baseball player there is!”
Last year, the family gave out the first Francis J. Feely Memorial Scholarship at Minisink Valley High School, paid for through the golf tournament. The scholarship goes to a senior who is either planning on becoming an accountant like Feely or who played baseball or softball or ran track.
The outing is open to the public, and it has grown from eight or nine foursomes at the first one to 20 who have signed up this year. After a morning of golf, a barbecue lunch, and giveaways and prizes for the golfers, they come back to Feely-Artola’s house in Mount Hope, order some pizzas, and hang out and swap stories about her Dad.
“So everyone gets to see each other on more of a happy occasion,” she said.
