Stanley Gitner Honored for 50 Years of Service

Yorktown Town Board members honored one of Yorktown's longest serving volunteers, Stanley Gitner during their Tuesday meeting. 

Gitner, 82, was presented with a certificate of achievement for his 50 years of volunteer service to the town, including being a deputy director of the town’s Office of Disaster and Emergency Services for the last 30 years. 

Stan has lived n Yorktown for 52 years with his wife Sonia, who presented him with a bouquet of flowers. They have been married for 60 years and raised their three children in town. 

"During Stan’s long tenure as a professional photographer, he could always be seen at any incident at any hour, doing what he does best,” Auxiliary Police Capt. Rick Davin said during the meeting.

Gitner is an honorary life member in numerous fire departments in the area as well as the Yorktown and Mohegan volunteer ambulance corps, Davin said. 

I don’t know where Stan gets his energy and his ability to remain so active," he continued. "I only hope I can stay as active and as vibrant as Stan has during his last fifty years of service to the town.”

Gitner said his interest in photography goes back to a friendship with a photographer for the Daily News in the Bronx. He said he vaguely remembers riding along with him about 50 years ago before he moved to Yorktown.

The transition to Yorktown was easy as he became friendly with local police agencies, he said, who would see him at car accidents and fire scenes all the time. Gitner said he was the photographer for the Peekskill Evening Star, the North County News (now called the PennySaver Community) and the Yorktown Examiner (now called the Northern Westchester Examiner). 

Gitner said, in a phone interview, that it's the adrenaline rush that would get him out the door in the middle of the night if he hears about a call. In the background, you could hear his scanner going off. He has about five scanners, each one placed in various rooms around the house, he said. 

Aside from photography, he used to work full time as a business partner, cleaning and repairing motion picture films for major industries. Gitner owns a digital camera he takes pictures with and much of his old equipment for printing and developing photographs, he said, he has sold or given away.

Known for his on the spot car accident and fire scene pictures, Gitner said he wants the young people seeing his car accident pictures to realize that they need to be careful when driving on the roads. 

Davin and Police Chief Daniel McMahon presented Gitner with the plaque.