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Lawrence F. Hickey, who was involved in Catholic charitable activities, and had a particular interest in programs for disabled children, died March 28 at his Manhattan home. He was 90.
He was a board member for 35 years of the Kennedy Child Study Center, a Catholic Charities-sponsored agency in Manhattan, and served as its board chairman from 1989 to 2006, when he became chairman emeritus.
He also was a benefactor and board member from 1981 to 2004 of Astor Services for Children and Families, an agency of the Daughters of Charity. He was instrumental in helping Astor acquire the Little Red School House building in the Northeast Bronx from the City of New York.
The building, which now houses Astor’s therapeutic early childhood program, was named the Lawrence F. Hickey Center for Child Development in his honor.
Mr. Hickey also was a past president of the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter and was chief honorary usher and a lector at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He was a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre and a Knight of Malta, a member of the Friends of Cardinal Cooke Guild and an early member of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation.
Among the many honors he received for his work over the years was an honorary “affiliate” bestowed on him by the Daughters of Charity, the William B. Reynolds Award from the University of Notre Dame and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from St. John’s University.
Born in Brooklyn, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame. He served in the U.S. Navy for four years during World War II. After the war, he joined his family’s construction business, M.F. Hickey Company.
He and his wife Jean, who died in 2007, were longtime parishioners of St. Vincent Ferrer parish in Manhattan, where Mr. Hickey served as a parish council member and president, lector and Eucharistic minister.
He is survived by a son, Frank, and three daughters, Elizabeth Hickey Lavin, Magee Hickey Salembier and Jane Hickey Sexton.
A Funeral Mass was offered April 1 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, with burial in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn.
