John Comba Of Westhampton Beach Dies Just Shy Of 105th Birthday

In 1942, John Comba boarded a train bound for eastern Long Island, embarking on a new chapter in his life, leaving behind his parents and eight siblings in his hometown of Carteret, New Jersey, to take a position as an industrial arts teacher and baseball coach at Westhampton Beach High School.

Just how far flung of a location he had chosen as the new home for himself and his wife, Ella, didn’t really occur to him until a passenger on the train, who asked where he was headed, expressed surprise, remarking that eastern Long Island was, at that time, still considered a kind of wilderness.

Mr. Comba was the only member of his large family who ever left Carteret. His parents, Charles and Julia Comba, emigrated to the United States through Ellis Island from their native Hungary in 1910, with their oldest child, a son. The family would eventually have eight more children (and only one daughter), with Mr. Comba arriving as the sixth child. After leaving Carteret, he never looked back, living as full and vibrant a life as one could hope for, with deep involvement and connection to the community, over the course of nearly 80 years residing in Westhampton Beach.

Mr. Comba died on March 3 at the age of 104, just 15 days before what would have been his 105th birthday.

He is remembered for the myriad ways he dedicated himself to the local community — as a teacher and baseball coach, and later the principal of Westhampton Beach Middle School; as a longtime member of Westhampton Beach Presbyterian Church, where he served as a trustee and elder; and as a 76-year member of the Westhampton Beach Fire Department. Four years ago, he was honored with a plaque from New York State, recognized as the oldest living firefighter in the state.

Mr. Comba was also well known for his skills as a woodworker, and the many hours he devoted to using that skill to present his family and friends with gifts that were the fruits of that labor. In the 1950s, he purchased a small cottage on Main Street in Westhampton Beach Village, a stone’s throw from the Presbyterian Church, and eventually renovated and expanded it — hand-digging the basement, where he created his woodworking shop — and making it the family home where he and Ella raised their two daughters, Melanie Bass, who now lives in Florida, and Doren Van Saun, who resides in Connecticut.

Not long after the Hurricane of 1938, Mr. Comba purchased a piece of property on Pond Point, off Dune Road, for just $1,500, and built two summer cottages there, eventually bequeathing them to his daughters.

When he wasn’t building homes, Mr. Comba could be found in his workshop, constructing all kinds of furniture.

“He was very prolific in his woodworking,” Ms. Van Saun said. “He was an amazing craftsman, and the vast majority of furniture that I have in my house he built. He did lots of built-in cabinets and closets, tables, chairs, you name it.”

Mr. Comba was particularly well-known for the clocks he built; wall clocks and also grandmother and grandfather clocks, which he gifted to his children and grandchildren. He also gifted one to Eloise Carter, the daughter of his longtime friend, Jim Bachman. Mr. Comba’s friendship with Mr. Bachman spanned decades, starting when they both worked as administrators in the Westhampton Beach School District, but their bond was particularly important in the latter stages of their life, when they had both lost their wives and were deep into retirement. Ms. Carter frequently drove them to fire department meetings, which they both attended up until their deaths; Mr. Bachman died in 2019 at the age of 97. They attended the same church, and enjoyed trips to Florida together with their wives, who were also friends, in the earlier stages of retirement.

“The two of them depended on each other,” Ms. Carter said, adding that Mr. Comba took the death of her father particularly hard. “They kept each other going. When I’d take my dad somewhere, he’d always ask, ‘Is John going?’ and if I asked John if he wanted to go somewhere, his first question would be, ‘Is your dad going?’ It was wonderful and it gave them each something to live for.”

The fact that Mr .Comba continued to attend monthly meetings at the firehouse made him an icon in the department. Westhampton Beach Fire Chief Mauro DiBenedetto said that while he did not know Mr. Comba particularly well, his status within the department was legendary.

“I loved seeing him, and Mr. Bachman,” he said. “It was great having him there. The department really lost a piece of our history with him.”

Mr. Comba’s reputation as an educator and principal was equally stellar.

“One thing someone commented about him was that he was strict but always fair, and he cared the most about the fact that children were learning,” Ms. Van Saun said, remarking that her father had been the principal in the junior high during one year when she was a student there. She described him as “no nonsense” when it came to discipline as an educator, but said he was also very well-respected. Mr. Comba also shared his lifelong love of sports in his capacity as an educator, coaching the baseball team at Westhampton Beach for a period of time. He was a star athlete during his own teenage and collegiate years, starring in baseball, basketball and football at both Carteret High School and later at Albright College in Pennsylvania, where he received a full scholarship. He was later inducted into the Carteret Hall of Fame for his athletic achievements.

It was a long and well-lived life for Mr. Comba, spent dedicated to a number of worthwhile pursuits, that shared a common theme.

“He was extremely generous,” Ms. Bass said. “He was always conscious of taking care of us, and putting his family first.”