Nothing To Fear: A Look Back at FDR in Westchester

submitted by Bob Foley, Van Cortlandtville Historical Society

Local followers of 20th century presidential history in our area will be treated to a fascinating insight into where, why and when our longest-serving president frequented the northwestern part of Westchester in a program on Saturday, September 24th, at 2 p.m, at Cortlandt Town Hall, 1 Heady Street, Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567.

Jointly sponsored by the Van Cortlandtville Historical Society, the Yorktown Historical Society and Croton Friends of History, and hosted by the Town of Cortlandt, the event is open free to the public. Wearing of masks is optional.

Author and historian Anthony Czarnecki of Cortlandt Manor will present a Power Point program entitled: “Nothing to Fear ... A Look Back at FDR’s 24 Public Appearances in Westchester County.”

Based on his just-published detailed article in The WESTCHESTER HISTORIAN Magazine, Mr. Czarnecki will reveal that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was no stranger to the people and places of Westchester. With vintage photos he discovered in his thorough research, he will show FDR’s unique connections to Cortlandt, Croton, Peekskill and the Hamlet of Shrub Oak in Yorktown during the years he was Governor of New York State and then President of the United States.

According to Bob Foley, program director of the Van Cortlandtville Historical Society, “this will be a return engagement by Mr. Czarnecki in presenting programs on the visits of iconic figures to Westchester to the three historical societies at Cortlandt Town Hall.”

He noted that in May 2017, Mr.Czarnecki presented “Growing Up Kennedy in Westchester: The Bronxville Years (1929-1941).” And, in October of 2021 he gave a Power Point program entitled: “What Did Winston Say? When Churchill Spoke in Westchester.”

A self-described “history detective” with published research on Abraham Lincoln’s visit to Peekskill in 1861 enroute to his inauguration in Washington, and also President Lincoln’s secret visit to West Point in the middle of the Civil War in 1862, Mr. Czarnecki gave a program on the latter in April of 2015 to the Van Cortlandtville Historical Society of which he is a longtime member.

He is also a longtime member of the JFK Library Foundation and the Board of Trustees of the Westchester County Historical Society. He is also a past president of the Lincoln Society of Peekskill, and in 2012 he was admitted to membership in the Society of Civil War Historians.

A graduate of Iona College, Mr. Czarnecki earned a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from John Jay College and also a Master’s in Public Administration from Pace University. He started his career as a Westchester County Probation Officer, and in 1981 he was the first recipient of the American Probation & Parole Association’s National Probation Officer of the Year Award. He is a past president of the New York State Probation Officers Association and the Middle Atlantic States Correctional Association.

For 25 years, Mr. Czarnecki worked as Chief of Staff of the Westchester County Department of Correction, serving six commissioners before he retired in 2008. He is currently president of The Chartwell Group USA, a criminal justice consulting firm. And he has taught courses at Iona College and Westchester Community College, and has published works on the origins of both the jail and probation systems in Westchester County.

Mr. Czarnecki and his wife, Lorraine, have owned a home in Cortlandt Manor for 45 years where they raised their two children.

Cortlandt Town Hall (the venue for the September 24th program) is located at the top of the Heady Street hill, which is on the south side of Oregon Road at the traffic light across from the Historic Upper Manor House and Pump House Road. For directions to Town Hall, visit: https://www.townofcortlandt.co...

For information about the Van Cortlandtville Historical Society, visit: www.vancort.net.
Working with Mr. Foley on this program are Chuck Radke, program coordinator at the Yorktown Historical Society, at www.yorktownhistory.org. And, Marc Cheshire, program coordinator at Croton Friends of History, at crotonfriendsofhistory.org.