By MICHAEL LaFORGIA

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 10, 2007

BOYNTON BEACH — Nicholas Cassandra, who for 11 years stubbornly refused to quit going to night school in New York until he earned his degree, and later applied the same tenacity as mayor and city commissioner, died Thursday of natural causes, his son said.

Mr. Cassandra, 79, served on the Boynton Beach City Commission from 1983 to 1985, when he was elected mayor.


He was born in Brooklyn on July 28, 1928, and joined the Navy after graduating from high school. He worked as a radar operator aboard the USS Coral Sea before his honorable discharge in 1954.

Living in Staten Island with a wife, Blanche, and young children to support, Mr. Cassandra began working as the dean of the RCA Institute, an electronics and technology school in New York. All the while he doggedly pursued his own degree at Hofstra University, though the process stretched more than a decade.

After earning a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, Mr. Cassandra moved with his family to Boynton Beach in 1970. He took a job with General Electric's Government Service Division.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Cassandra saw new developments springing up from the dairy land to the west and became convinced that he could make a difference.

On the commission he developed a reputation as a bulldog when it came to budget matters. He resigned his mayoral seat in 1988, when he mounted an unsuccessful campaign for an open county commission seat.

He is survived by Blanche, his wife of 53 years; children, Mary Jo McVey, Frank Cassandra and John Cassandra; and eight grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Boynton Memorial Chapel, 800 Boynton Beach Blvd.

A funeral Mass will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at St. Mark Catholic Church, 643 N.E. Fourth Ave., Boynton Beach.

Donations can be made in his name to the American Heart Association or the American Cancer Society.