Augustus Anthony Beekman (March 28, 1923 – November 29, 2008) was the 23rd

New York City Fire Commissioner The New York City fire commissioner is the civilian administrator of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), and is appointed by the mayor of the City of New York. Prior to 1865, the New York City Fire Department was staffed by volunteers. On ...

Biography

He was born on March 28, 1923, at

Harlem Hospital Harlem Hospital Center, branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is a 282-bed, public teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and was founded on April 18, 1887. ...

in New York City and grew up in the Catholic Church-run orphanage,

Little Flower Home Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

, in

Wading River, New York Wading River is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 7,719. It is adjacent to Shoreham and shares a school di ...

and was appointed the 23rd Fire Commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Edward I. Koch on January 17, 1978, and served in that position until his resignation on November 5, 1980. He was the second African-American Fire Commissioner in the history of that position. Beekman died on November 29, 2008. He is survived by his wife and two children.

References

Commissioners of the New York City Fire Department 1923 births 2008 deaths People from Wading River, New York 20th-century African-American people {{US-poli-bio-stub