Camp leader leaves a legacy of generosity
By Arlene Gross	write the author
May 29, 2008 | 12:16 PM On the evening before what should have been a celebration of 120 continuous years of summer camp on Centerport's shores, Camp Alvernia's beloved director, Brother Robert LaFave, 69, died suddenly at his home on Friday. The cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest, Brother Larry Makofske said. "He got up to go to the kitchen, took a few steps, looked at me, didn't say anything and went down very slowly," Makofske said. "When I got to him he was not breathing." After trying to revive his friend, housemate and fellow Franciscan brother, Makofske said Centerport Fire Department's doctor and emergency medical technicians arrived minutes later to their residence on camp grounds, but failed to resuscitate LaFave. LaFave, who had three previous heart attacks over the last 11 years, had difficulty walking after a near fatal car accident in 1999. To help him navigate the sprawling 15-acre campus, LaFave would cruise around in his ubiquitous golf cart, invariably accompanied by the camp's canine mascots, Snoopy, an 8-year-old golden retriever and Sergio, a 5-year-old chocolate lab. Makofske will continue caring for both dogs. Having met LaFave 50 years ago while both were training at the Franciscan novitiate in Wyandanch, Makofske followed LaFave's career of teaching and administrative posts spanning New York City, Long island, Florida and North Carolina. Working with him at St. Peter's School in Greenville, N.C. in the early 1990s, Makofske observed firsthand how effective LaFave was in running the school and its summer camp. "When he was first assigned there, there were maybe 110 kids in the school and the parish was looking at maybe closing it," he recalled. "They invited Robert to give a shot at it. When I got there a few years later, he had 500 kids. He's able to grow things." After his first heart attack in 1997, LaFave convalesced at the Mount Alvernia retreat in Centerport. There, Makofske, Mount Alvernia's director, asked LaFave to take over what was then a small summer camp, serving 300 kids. "The camp was puttering along," Makofske said. "Maybe not the next year but, two years later, the numbers started increasing, We're way up — triple that almost." Makofske credited LaFave for making the camp an attractive and fun place to be for both returning campers and staff. "The American Camping Association said you're doing really well if you could get 50 percent of your staff back the next year," he said. "I don't know what the exact number is, but I certainly know it's over 80 percent this year — maybe higher. He knew how to make things good for the workers to want to come back." For LaFave, the camp was home and the staff his family. "Some of the counselors are like the sons and daughters I never had," he told this paper last year. Noting that the camp offers many anonymous scholarships to campers, Makofske spoke of one typical scenario where a mother could not afford the tuition after a divorce. "We'd get on the phone and say 'get back here, sign up your kids,' … We'd make them sign up." LaFave said he had felt the calling after seeing an ad for a Franciscan teaching job while still a senior in high school in his native Grand Rapids, Michigan. At 18, he moved to Brooklyn to begin a regimen of prayer, study and work. "I had been doing everything like everyone else was doing and all of a sudden it all came back to me," he reported. "I knew I didn't want to be a priest. Doing parish work didn't appeal to me." Commenting on the man he knew for many years, Monsignor Thomas Colgan of St. Philip Neri Church in Northport noted that LaFave did remarkably well considering his ill health. "He lived the camp, he ate the camp, he did everything for the camp," Colgan said. "As far as I'm concerned, his heart and soul was in it, and that made the big difference." Having been associated with the camp himself since 1942 when he helped prepare it for that summer's reopening, Colgan eventually presided over many camp masses. "He was a brave man," Colgan said, of LaFave. "He overcame a lot of his own physical failings to become a great leader of this camp. It's going to show even after he's gone, because of his dedication. He was cordial, he was kind, he was cheerful — and he was a sick man a long, long time." Assistant Director Ben Esposito, who will become acting director this summer, characterized LaFave as "very real." "You knew who he was and you knew where you stood with him," Esposito said. "He really made sure to let everyone know that he cared about them. He was really happy and excited to the end." "He really was a remarkable man," he continued. "So many people were really impacted and influenced — not just by what he did but by who he was. "The best thing you can say about anybody is that their legacy will continue. He really made sure that he passed himself on to so many people." In memory of Brother Robert's generous spirit, Camp Alvernia requests that in lieu of flowers, well-wishers send donations to the Scholarship Fund, which will be named for him. "He and Brother Larry began the fund years ago, and it was one of his convictions that no child should miss out on a camp experience because they couldn't afford it," Esposito stated. "His goal was that the fund would grow till the interest would support the many children who come to camp on scholarship." The 120th anniversary celebration, which will also commemorate LaFave's life and legacy, has been rescheduled to June 22, from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm at the Thatched Cottage in Centerport.