Daniel L Master

Daniel L. Master Sr., 89, a Realtor and longtime Conservative Party member who played a key role in shaping Staten Island by opposing the 1970s South Richmond Plan, died Sunday at his Eltingville home, after a long illness.

Born in Flushing, Queens, he joined the U.S. Navy on his 17th birthday on Feb. 18, 1943, during World War II. A radioman first class, he saw duty in the South Pacific and the Admiralty Islands. He also served in the Seabees, the Navy Construction Battalion.

After his return from the Navy, Mr. Master began working for the family real estate firm, which had been founded in 1887. He soon went out on his own, and founded Daniel L. Master Real Estate in Queens before building a real estate office in Oakwood in the early 1960s. He retired in 1988.

He moved to Todt Hill in 1964, and to Eltingville in 2006.

Mr. Master, a founding member of the Conservative Party in New York State, served as the borough party chair in the early 1970s.

He is credited with almost singlehandedly defeating the South Richmond Plan, which was championed by GOP state Sen. John Marchi.

The plan, which grew out of a study completed by the Rouse Co. at the request of Mayor John V. Lindsay, called for 450,000 residents to live south of Richmond Avenue, with high-rise apartment buildings to be constructed on a landfilled Great Kills Marina. The West Shore was to be an industrial zone boasting 40,000 jobs. Had the plan gone through, the borough's population could be 1 million or more today.

Mr. Master challenged Marchi in 1972, running for state senate on the Conservative line, but lost. He received 18,000 votes, good for 17 percent, most from voters in election districts in the proposed South Richmond zone. The plan failed in the state Assembly, and was not resubmitted.

"It was a plan which was a tragedy, it was a mistake," said former Borough President James Molinaro. "He stopped that. There's no question of the importance that he had on this Island. He'll be missed."

Molinaro described Mr. Master as a close friend, a kind and generous man and "a strong American, an unbelievable American."

Mr. Master was a longtime member of the Richmond County Country Club, where he was an avid tennis player. He was also active with the borough Heart to Heart Club, and sponsored both the Boy Scouts and Little League in Queens and on Staten Island.

A great lover of music, he sang in a barbershop quartet called the Crack-a-Tones in the 1960s. His group was crowned champion of five separate Staten Island barbershop quartet competitions, and won second place in a 1966 citywide competition at the Central Park Mall.

Mr. Master was a longtime member of New Dorp Moravian Church.

His wife of 55 years, Florence R. (Sally) Master, died in 2004.

Surviving are his son, Acting District Attorney Daniel L. Master Jr., his daughters, Susan Irene Master and Jane Christian, and five grandchildren.

The funeral service will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. in New Dorp Moravian Church. Burial will follow in Moravian Cemetery, also New Dorp. The Casey Funeral Home, Castleton Corners, is handling arrangements.