Andrew J. "Andy" Mehalick, Jr.

Andrew J. “Andy” Mehalick Jr.

After a long life devoted to community, country, friends, family — and sports — Andrew J. “Andy” Mehalick Jr., 88, slipped away peacefully on Jan. 12, 2025, at Sunrise of Columbia Memory Care, in Maryland, where he resided for the previous 3 years, near his son Michael. He was comforted by the presence of his son and daughter and the sounds of a 1977 Yankees World Series vintage radio broadcast — an appropriate sendoff as he was known to tune into ANY live sports broadcast, no matter how loudly it crackled with static.

Andy was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, the first child of Andrew Mehalick and Helen Bubrowski Mehalick. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret “Jean” (Conklin) Mehalick, and their younger son, Peter Mehalick; his parents, brothers-in-law, Joseph Chalk, John Conklin and Robert MacBlane; and sister-in-law Mary Ellen Maycumber.

He is survived by his son Michael (Kimberly) with grandchildren James, Matthew and Elizabeth Mehalick; daughter Susan (Steven Wilcox) with granddaughter Eve Mehalick Wilcox; sister Elaine MacBlane; sisters-in-law, Ann S. Chalk and June Conklin; his favorites , grandnieces Mariah Chalk Locke and Erynne Chalk Snyder, as well as nieces and nephews in the MacBlane, Chalk, Conklin and Maycumber families.

The “president for life” of Elmira Free Academy’s Class of 1955 forged lifelong friendships and close family ties in the community he loved. Andy — the son of a Pennsylvania coal miner who reinvented himself as a tool and die maker‑entrepreneur after moving the family to New York for a manufacturing job in 1940 — grew up in an era when the kids from Hoffman Court spent their summer days playing pick‑up baseball or splashing in the nearby creek until dinnertime.

He had an early aptitude for sports, and in his youth played football, basketball and baseball, his favorite team pursuit. Thanks to guidance from a caring and astute English teacher, he would go on to graduate in 1959 from Dartmouth College, where he excelled perhaps more on the baseball diamond than in academics.

Following active-duty service in the Marine Corps (which he followed with 25 years as a reserve), he settled down in Elmira to build his family and life. He spent the majority of his professional career at IBM, working in sales, a field well-suited to a man who easily made friends, seemed to bump into people he knew in the most improbable places, and often felt compelled to work the room wherever he went to greet friends.

His true passion — when he wasn’t playing softball for Gerber’s Grille (fast pitch) or West Elmira Athletic Club (slow pitch), basketball, tennis or golf — was coaching youth sports. He touched generations of area kids through his years spent coaching Pony League and Little League in West Elmira, and the Our Lady of Lourdes CYO high school boys’ basketball team. After retiring from IBM, he devoted 15 years to coaching girls' basketball. He was first lured back to his courtside perch by a friend to coach for CYO, before moving on to help coach the Notre Dame High School Lady Crusaders Junior Varsity team. (If anyone wants scorebooks from those ND seasons, please reach out!)

This opened up a whole new world of fandom to a loyal New York Yankees and a long-suffering New York Giants fan, as he became an avid follower of college women’s basketball, with a perhaps obsessive interest in the University of Connecticut team.

Andy will be remembered as a gentle soul who would rally his kids to lead the laborious task of checking each wire and bulb before the Christmas lights were strung on the tree, spin an engrossing campfire story (“The Green Mist”), willingly don a neckerchief or kilt as a Boy Scout Cub Pack leader, drink a PBR after work while reading the Star-Gazette, always be game to toss a ball, and generously lift his voice in song at Mass however offkey. He also imparted to his children the finer points of poker and euchre, the latter of which were on display every summer with epic tournaments at Keuka Lake with the Kane family.

He and Jean raised their children to be responsible, caring and ethical people through quiet example rather than pronouncements or commands. They created a welcoming home to which members of the extended family still return.

Andy was particularly close to his brothers-in-law and enjoyed their friendship and company on golf trips and cruises. He and his family owe a debt of gratitude to Joe Chalk — and his wife, Ann — for making it possible for Andy to stay in his Elmira home for as long as possible.

If the measure of a person’s life is the kindness and wisdom he or she shares in building up others and a community, then Andy’s life was a success.

Donations in Andy’s memory may be made to Notre Dame High School, 1400 Maple Avenue Elmira NY 14904; the Marine Corps League, E. J. Brewer Detachment #458, P O Box 236, Horseheads NY 14845, or any local charity that provides youth sports programs.

We mourn his loss but will celebrate Andy’s life with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, July 10, 2025, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 224 Franklin St., Elmira, to be followed by a committal service, with military honors, at St. Peter & Paul’s Cemetery.