Jerry Ahern, a beloved figure in the heavy equipment industry, passed away at age 97. Known for his compassion and dedication, he ran his company like a family, earning the nickname "Uncle Jerry" from employees and friends. His legacy includes building strong relationships and being deeply involved in his community.
Ahern Family photo
Jerry Ahern (R) was never afraid to get his shoes muddy. Here, in 1960, he gives service tips to a customer.
A heavy hitter in the world of heavy equipment, Farmingdale, N.Y.'s Jerry Ahern sold and leased bulldozers, excavators and other construction vehicles that for decades helped build Long Island.
As loved ones tell it, he ran his company the way he ran his family of eight children — with kindness, concern and remembering everyone's name.
"To me, he was Uncle Jerry," said Steve Schiavetta of Mount Sinai, a family friend who became a longtime part of Ahern's company, Edward Ehrbar Inc., which is now part of the conglomerate Komatsu. "But really, to all the people who worked there he was also Uncle Jerry."
In a company of as many as 200 people, "He not only knew everybody's names, but he also knew their spouses' and kids' names, because he was such a family man himself."
It wasn't for show but a genuine part of his personality, said Schiavetta, now general manager of sales of Komatsu Company Stores East. He recalled Mr. Ahern hiring him for an entry-level position in 1982, soon after Schiavetta graduated college.
Ahern Family photo
"I knew he worked for a place that sold construction equipment, but he was just so unassuming that I was shocked after my first day, coming home and telling my mother, ‘Uncle Jerry's, like, the owner of the company!' I couldn't believe it, because he was so humble and so even keeled and such a kind man."
Mr. Ahern died June 1, 2025, at age 97, of natural causes at the Mary Ann Tully Hospice Inn in Melville.
"He spent 36 hours in hospice," said Mary Macchio, of Farmingdale, one of his daughters. "The other 97 years he spent in his home."
"Last Thursday," three days before his passing, "he had a small gang of adult-age great grandchildren at his kitchen table," said one son, Patrick Ahern, of St. James.
"They came in from Boston and from Omaha, Nebraska, to see him," added Macchio. "They knew grandpa was getting older, and he met his last two (of 17) great-grandchildren, who were five months old and one-year-old.
Farmingdale High Graduate
Jeremiah Francis Ahern was born Oct. 4, 1927, in Brooklyn, the third of seven children of parents, William J. Ahern and Helen A. Richardson Ahern, who resided in Bethpage then still named Central Park. William, a banker who rose to become a vice president of the Bank of Manhattan, later part of JT Morgan Chase & Co., was instrumental in his village's name-change to Bethpage and was part of a group that persuaded Grumman Aircraft to headquarter there.
Despite such pedigree, Mr. Ahern, who graduated from Farmingdale High School in 1944, worked in more modest jobs — caddying in Bethpage State Park and being a hotel bellhop in Florida. After serving as a sergeant with the U.S. Army's 3rd Constabulary Regiment in occupied Germany after World War II, he joined Edward Ehrbar's since-closed Brooklyn facility in 1947 as a helper in the parts department.
After marrying Therese Regina Marie McMurray in 1949 and moving to Farmingdale to start a family, Mr. Ahern worked in virtually every position of the parts, service and sales departments as he rose to become president of the then Pelham Manor company in the late 1960s, following the death of its second-generation family owner.
"And then he spent the next decade of this life buying the company," said Patrick Ahern, former president of Edward Ehrbar Inc.
Another son, Matthew Ahern, former executive vice president of Edward Ehrbar Inc., spoke about his father's philosophy as a businessman, friend and family man.
Ahern Family photo
"I spoke with many people at his wake and the general theme was that he was a true friend to everybody, whether it was business or socially," he said.
"I use a term ‘non-generational,' in that my father very easily and quickly made connections to people no matter what the age difference was," he added. "I worked with him for 40 years and I used to say that I've been in the business for 60 years, but getting paid for about 40 years. There was always business talk around the kitchen table. He lived it, slept it, breathed it, but he was also very much a family man, dedicated to our local parish, St. Killian's out in Long Island.
Matthew Ahern recalled how comfortable his father always made people feel.
"He knew employees by their first name, knew of their families, no matter what the person's age was. It was the same in his social life. In his latter years, some of his very close relationships that he developed after retiring in 2003 were with folks that were half his age. It was very hard to find anybody that had an encounter with my father that was not favorable and memorable.
Ahern said a big part of his father's success with Edward Ehrbar Inc. was that he created and developed very trusting, long-standing relationships with business partners, whether they be customers or manufacturers, like International Harvester, the Frank G. Hough Company and ultimately, Dresser Industries, and financial institutions.
"He was always regarded as a man of his word," he said. "After he retired, he stayed in touch with my brother, Patrick, and me as to what was going on within the business. I can remember him being somewhat disenchanted that, and maybe it's just the way the world has changed, that the relationships were not as personal as years went on. I can tell you he always highly regarded his relationships, and this goes back to the earliest days of his career when he first got involved in management."
Weekends for
the Family
A gin rummy card shark who rode a Honda 750 motorcycle in the 1970s and '80s, Mr. Ahern worked long hours during the week but devoted weekends to family. In 1958, he purchased a beach house on West Meadow Beach, "and from Memorial Day to Labor Day, we were out on the boat, water skiing," said Patrick Ahern. "All eight of us learned how to water ski from about seven years old. We were kind of water rats," he joked, "and that's thanks to him."
In later years, he played golf at the Huntington Country Club. While "not a scratch golfer," said his son, he nonetheless was named 2002 Golfer of the year by the Independent Group Home Living Program, a Manorville nonprofit for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, for his philanthropy toward that organization.
He was a member of such professional groups as the Long Island Contractors Association, the General Contractors Association of New York and the Association of Equipment Distributors.
In addition to his daughter Mary and son, Patrick, he survived by sons Jeremiah Jr. of Moneta, Va.; Matthew of Shelton, Conn.; and Edward, of Hawley, Pa.; daughters Susan Yuskevich of Interlaken, N.J.; Bernadette Bartolotto of Smithtown, N.Y.; and Monica Lockwood of Milford, Conn., a centenarian sister; Mary K. Looney of Farmingdale; 20 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
The family requests that memorial donations be made to Hope House Ministries, www.hhm.org, Independent Group Home Living, www.ighl.org or St. Kilian Social Ministry Outreach, www.stkilian.com. CEG
Craig Mongeau
Craig Mongeau has been Construction Equipment Guide’s editor in chief for the past 21-plus years. He directly manages CEG’s Northeast and Southeast editions (which includes New England, Georgia and Alabama state supplements); Superintendent’s Profile; Crane Guide; Northeast and Southeast-based anniversary magazines; and special event publications. He also oversees CEG’s Midwest and Western Editions as well as all CEG website content.
A Hofstra University graduate, Craig began his publishing career as a staff writer for local Southeast Pennsylvania newspapers. He then became an associate editor and book editor of Springhouse Corporation, a Pennsylvania-based medical publishing house and then worked as a managing editor of Rockhill Communications, based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., where he created and managed content for a national Voluntary Hospital Association website.
Originally from Pittsfield, Mass., Craig has lived in North Wales, Pa., for the past 27 years. He has been married to his wife, Hillary, whom he met in college, since 1998 and together, they have two daughters, Jolie and Aubrie.
Read more from Craig Mongeau here.
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