Gareiss, Aurora, 1909-2000.

Mrs. Aurora Gareiss was born to Peter and Anna M. Varvaro in Brooklyn, New York, January 20, 1909. Her parents came from Palermo and settled in Bay Ridge. She studied art in the United States and Italy and become an accomplished artist. She married Herbert Gareiss in 1932 and as newlyweds lived in Jackson Heights. In 1943 the Herbert, Aurora and their son moved to Douglaston.

For the next 20 years of so Mrs. Gareiss worked as a housewife and an artist. By the 1960s the environment and its degradation became a major concern for her. However when real estate developers began filling in the marsh in the wetlands in Little Neck and Great Neck this concern grew into action. In less than a year, these events transformed her from a housewife into an environmental and political activist. In 1969, with the help of neighbor Ralph Kamhi they created the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee. This not only saved this land from development but spurred a host of Douglaston, Little Neck and Great Neck residence into becoming activists themselves including Virginia Dent, Lucile Helfat, Walter Mugdan, Arthur Kelley and others.

In the mid 1990s Mrs. Gareiss moved upstate to Warwick, New York to be close to her son Herbert Gareiss Jr and his family. On February 18, 2000 she passed away. Mrs. Gareiss is survived by Mr. and Mrs. Herbert and Jane Gareiss Jr., grandsons Todd and Peter Gareiss, a granddaughter Anne Lannutti, and several nieces and nephews.

A detailed list of the groups she participated in, awards she earned and a chronology of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee is available in the finding aid.