The Sayville Alumni Association is proud to announce the newest face on the Sayville High School Wall of Distinguished Alumni — John William “Bud” Van Wyen Jr., Class of 1944.

Bud’s life was woven into Sayville. After graduating in 1944, he served in the U.S. Navy from October 1944 to July 1946 aboard USS Livingston, and he was recalled to service during the Korean War, from June to December 1951. Back home, he ran the family’s service station — bought by his father in 1945 and a Sayville fixture until it closed in 1985.

Few names are more closely tied to Long Island’s fire service. Bud was a trustee of the Firemen’s Home, a past president of the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York, of the Suffolk County and Islip Town fire associations, and president of the Suffolk County Volunteer Firemen’s Association from 1965 to 1967.

West Sayville golfers owe him a special debt. In 1965, Bud and John Beintema led the citizens’ drive that built the support for Suffolk County’s purchase of the 350-acre Hard Estate. The Board of Supervisors approved the purchase that May, and the land became Suffolk’s first public golf links — today’s West Sayville Golf Course, which opened on May 25, 1968, and now records almost 47,000 rounds of golf a year.

Bud passed away on February 15, 1987, but his fingerprints are still all over the community he served.

Read Bud’s full profile here: