Anthony Pasquale Jimenez spent more than five decades finding ways to serve others. He died April 19 at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook, Nassau County. He was 74.
Jimenez, a Glen Cove resident since 1980, died of congestive heart failure. He had built one of the more quietly remarkable public service records in Nassau County history, moving from Vietnam combat veteran to city court officer to EMS chief to city council member to director of veterans affairs without ever seeming to stop.
Born July 12, 1951, and raised in New York City, Jimenez grew up as the middle child of Micheline and Philip Jimenez, in the city’s housing projects alongside his siblings. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a sergeant with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam and Cambodia. He was wounded in combat and awarded the Purple Heart, along with the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Air Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal for Valor. He came home in 1971.
Back stateside, he worked as a surgical technician. That’s where he met his wife, Kathy.
He settled in Glen Cove in 1980 and became a city court officer eight years later. In 1994, he joined the Glen Cove Fire Department as an emergency medical technician and eventually served as the city’s EMS chief. He served on the Glen Cove City Council from 2000 to 2014 and later became the city’s director of veterans affairs, where he advocated for fellow veterans navigating the bureaucratic maze of benefits and services.
One story captures him well. Jimenez championed the placement of AEDs, automated external defibrillators, in Nassau County courthouses. He pushed hard for the effort. Then, after one was installed in a Nassau County courtroom, a juror went into cardiac arrest and the device saved that person’s life. That single moment drove a broader push that resulted in AEDs being installed in courthouses across New York State. There’s no bill number attached to the effort, no headline. Just a man who saw a gap and filled it.
When the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, Jimenez went to Ground Zero. He worked weeks in the bucket brigade, sifting through debris by hand, piece by piece, searching for the missing.
He also served as a court officer and later as deputy commissioner of jurors for Nassau County. Throughout his career, he collected multiple commendations, life-saving awards, and honors for heroism.
U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who was mayor of Glen Cove when Jimenez served on the city council, called him “a true hero.” “Tony Jimenez dedicated his life to serving others,” Suozzi said in a social media post covered by Long Island Press. “A Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart recipient, he brought that same sense of duty home, serving on the Glen Cove City Council when I was mayor, and later as the Director of Veterans Affairs for the City of Glen Cove. Tony was a man of quiet strength who always put others before himself.”
Nassau County Legislator Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton called Jimenez a dear friend and said her heart broke for his family. “He’s such a fighter,” she said.
Jimenez is survived by his wife, Kathy; his children, Christopher and Nina; his grandchild, Kurt; and other extended family members.
For Long Islanders who want to understand what public service looks like outside of press releases and election campaigns, Jimenez’s record is worth sitting with. He spent 14 years on the Glen Cove City Council without seeking higher office. He drove AED adoption across New York’s court system without attaching his name to it publicly. He volunteered at Ground Zero while holding down a career and raising a family. Veterans who used the Glen Cove veterans affairs office during his tenure got an advocate who actually knew what they’d been through, because he’d been through it too. Information on veterans services in Nassau County is available through the Nassau County Department of Human Services, and the Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook, where Jimenez spent his final days, continues to serve Long Island’s veteran population.
He was 74 years old. He had done enough for several lifetimes.