Anderson Velasco Velasquez Captures Howard Munson Scholarship

Anderson Velasco Velasquez isn’t shy about putting his head down and engaging in hard work. He is willing to take on challenging, but delicate projects that require careful analysis and problem-solving along with some elbow grease to complete. The Huntington High School senior is this year’s recipient of the Howard H. Munson Memorial Scholarship Award, which honors one of the town’s legendary business figures.

The $5,000 Munson scholarship will help defray some of Mr. Velasco’s expenses at Suffolk County Community College where he plans to study. The teenager participated in Wilson Tech’s highly regarded automotive technology program. Suffolk has an equally impressive auto tech program.

The Munson scholarship is administered by the Huntington Fire Department. Ex-Chief Neil Getter presented this year’s award during the senior scholarships and awards night ceremony in the high school auditorium earlier this week.

Mr. Velasco has a strong work ethic, similar in many ways to the one that Mr. Munson displayed during a business career that spanned a remarkable seven decades.

While Mr. Velasco and Mr. Munson never had an opportunity to meet, the teenager has most definitely passed his benefactor’s place of business at 197 New York Avenue many times over the years. The businessman’s success and spectacular generosity will benefit Mr. Velasco as he moves on to pursue his career goals.

Although Mr. Munson freely acknowledged that he never really enjoyed school, he knew it was important. He did what needed to be done, graduating from Port Washington High School while keeping his eyes squarely on the future.

Born June 28, 1908 to Frank and Dora Hill Munson, Howard didn’t particularly care for traditional schooling, but he did like cars and he told his dad to forget about the new car he had been promised if he stuck it out and graduated from high school, because he would rather use the money to study engineering at Pratt Institute, which he did, obtaining a degree in 1928. After Pratt, he went on to graduate from General Motors Tech.

Mr. Munson opened an auto repair shop in Huntington on September 1, 1930 and continued running it until the very day he passed away on October 22, 1999 at 91 years of age. During the almost 70 years he was in the auto repair business he served the local fire department, the rich and famous, the poor who could not pay, the local townsfolk and those who came from afar after having learned of his expertise.

A telling episode in Mr. Munson’s life illustrated his character and the values he held dear. On a terribly cold and icy night, when there was a very bad fire in Huntington, he worked all night to keep a truck pumping and got it out of the way when the building started to collapse.

Mr. Munson was also an avid ice skater and continued to enjoy it as a hobby until he was 89. Over the years, his business continued to grow, largely due to the fact that Mr. Munson cared about his customers. “He never once over charged nor cheated them in any way and while he got his hands dirty, he was noted for always wearing a necktie with his uniform and keeping the shop neat, clean and organized,” Ex-Chief Getter said.

Just like Mr. Munson, Mr. Velasco’s work ethic is stellar. He will do very well in life if he achieves just a fraction of the success that Mr. Munson did. “Though he chose ‘blue collar’ work, Mr. Munson died a very wealthy man,” Ex-Chief Getter said.

This marks the 25th year the Howard N. Munson Scholarship Award has been presented to a Huntington senior.