Patrick McKenna

Greenvale, NY – Patrick Joseph McKenna, 78, of Greenvale, New York passed away Friday, April 10, 2026, surrounded by loved ones at Saint Francis Hospital following a battle with cancer.

Patrick was born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in College Point, NY. After graduating from Flushing High School he moved to Florida where he married Kathleen Mills. Following his military service, the newlyweds returned to New York and raised their two sons in West Babylon, NY for the next 25 years.

After the children were grown and on their own, Pat relocated to Greenvale, NY. During this time and well into retirement, Pat developed a close circle of friends and neighbors. He devoted much of his time to motorcycling and sailing trips up and down the east coast. It was in Greenvale that Pat re-connected with high school classmate Marie Piepol with whom he shared his final 16 years.

From a young age, Pat displayed a precise, pragmatic nature and an intuition with all things mechanical. This fostered his career as a machinist and eventually design engineer/ director of manufacturing. These aptitudes, coupled with an insatiable curiosity towards history and foreign cultures, found expression in Pat’s life-long passion for scale model building. This is evident in the tremendous body of museum quality military models he leaves behind. These interests and curiosities were passed on to his two sons as were interests in fishing, camping, and scuba diving.

Above all however, Pat will best be remembered as exceedingly generous; always eager to share time, resources or expertise with anyone he came across. Those fortunate to know him experienced this not only in the assistance Pat willingly gave with projects of any description but even in the simple sharing of time over a meal or a drink. He loved food! Pat made everyone he met feel like a friend and his stories, told with slow deliberation and no shortage of gesticulation, will always be remembered fondly.

Patrick was preceded in death by his parents Bernard J. McKenna and Virginia (Salmeri) McKenna, his sister Julia (McKenna) Yarborough and his son William McKenna. Patrick is survived by his son Brett McKenna and daughter-in-law Tanya Krawchuk of Philadelphia, PA, his daughter-in-law Dina (Johnsen) McKenna of Mt. Juliet, TN and granddaughters Katelynn and Sabrina of Tennessee, as well as long time companion, Marie Piepol and a handful of dear, close friends.

A private memorial will be held this summer. In lieu of flowers or donations, take some time to connect or re-connect with good friends and/or family and enjoy a drink or a meal in Pat’s honor.