Louis Prestel

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Longtime Stapleton resident Louis Prestel, 85, a retired Consolidated Edison employee and U.S. Army veteran who loved his family and enjoyed bowling, died Thursday in The Gardens at Hidden Hammock, Coral Springs, Fla.

Mr. Prestel was born in Stapleton and graduated from high school on the Island. He lived in Stapleton almost all his life, until relocating to Coral Springs in 1999.

He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War era, from 1951 to 1953, stationed in Arizona and at other stateside bases.

Mr. Prestel worked for Con Edison for more than 25 years. He retired in 1991 from the distribution department.

He was a quiet, easygoing man who was hardworking and held traditional values. His family was very important to him, they said.

Mr. Prestel loved bowling and had bowled in many leagues on the Island. He also was a baseball enthusiast and rooted for the New York Yankees and the football Giants.

His wife of 39 years, the former Selma Gundacker, died in 1993.

Surviving are his son, Steven; his daughters, Diane Lewis and Beth Grimet; his sister, Dolores Elslager; two grandchildren and a great-grandson.

The funeral will be Tuesday from the Virginia Funeral Chapel, with a mass at 10 a.m. in St. Ann's R.C. Church, both Dongan Hills. Burial will follow in Resurrection Cemetery, Pleasant Plains.