Michael F. Cannon

October 7th 1935 – June 12th 2024

Michael Francis Cannon passed away on Wednesday June 12th, 2024. He was fortunate to be at home and pass peacefully, surrounded by much of his family. The son of Michael and Ellen Cannon, who both emigrated from Ireland, he was 88 years old. He will be dearly missed and fondly remembered by his loving wife, Joan Cannon, with whom he shared 61 years of marriage; his sister Julia Brady; his children Jeannie and Christopher; and his nine grandchildren who he was so proud of: Freddie, Ryan, Regina, Michael, Maddie, Patrick, Matthew, Maggie, and Brody. His son Michael, who passed in 2020 is waiting to welcome him with open arms – and likely a Guinness if we had to guess. He is also remembered by the spouses of his children: Kara, Fred, and Christine.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Mike attended Cardinal Hayes High School. He remembered his formative years fondly, regularly recounting tales of his time spent playing stickball in a lot nearby his family home. Despite the many years that had passed, he was still able to recall the names (and nicknames) of everyone on his team.

Mike, being an avid swimmer, spent many of his summers working as a lifeguard at Crotona Park during his high school years and Orchard Beach during his summers in college. He truly enjoyed his time as a lifeguard, and many of his favorite stories to tell were related to the accomplishments (and occasional mishaps) that he experienced there.

He went on to attend Iona College, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business. In addition to receiving his degree, Mike also trained with the Marines at Paris Island and Camp LeJune, serving as a reserve member of the US Marines for 5 years.

After earning his degree, Mike went on to work at Metropolitan Life alongside Gene Sautner and John O’Brian who became some of his closest friends over their nearly 40 years of shared employment. He was always so excited to recount to Freddie (who now also works in the business world) about his tremendous efforts to implement cost centers for each office location, his exciting business trips and site visits, and the incredibly interesting changes that came along with the introduction of computers in his industry.

After meeting Joan at a Christmas party at Festival Bar in NYC and hitting it off, they were married at Cresthaven Country Club in 1962. They moved together into an apartment in Jackson Heights. After a few years (and a few children) they eventually moved into a beautiful apartment in Rockaway Beach called Dayton Towers– to this day one of his favorite places. We recently had the chance to take him back to Rockaway Beach and stopped by to take some photos at his old apartment – an unforgettable day for us all.

In 1975, Mike and Joan moved to Seaway Drive in Copiague where he continued to raise his family and happily live out the rest of his life. On Long Island, Mike made many friends through the Long Island Yacht Club, where he could frequently be found playing tennis (and winning the club’s doubles tournament with his daughter Jeannie), hanging out in “Cannon’s Corner” by the boat slips, or jumping on Hans Heiduck’s or Frank Peche’s boat to go sailing. One particularly fond memory was of the LIYC boat race, where Mike and the other participants on his boat were enjoying themselves perhaps a bit too liberally during the race and ended up finishing nearly two hours after every other boat had crossed the

line. This was particularly funny, as the Commodore was not allowed to leave his post until the last boat had crossed the finish line and he was (understandably) quite unhappy with the situation.

Mike also loved to go fishing, and went on many a Captree charter fishing trip with his grandson Freddie where they once managed to win the prize pool for largest catch of the day.

Despite not describing himself as a “car guy,” Mike had quite the selection of automobiles throughout his life. Starting off in a Renault Dauphine, which he consistently to this day claims was woefully underpowered and terribly built, he ended up driving the car off the side of a small bridge and totaling it due to poor weather conditions – to this day we are unsure if it was related to his distaste for the vehicle… He quickly moved on to a mint green ’55 Ford Thunderbird, a car that caught the attention of his wife Joan early in their relationship. In the search for something a bit more practical, he worked his way into a Studebaker Golden Hawk. Despite seating four, it was still a two-door coupe and had a supercharged V8. We are not quite sure what his measure of practicality was on that one.

Shortly after becoming a family man, Mike sold off both cars and found himself with a VW Bug. After working his way through a variety of other cars from brands including Nissan, Infiniti, Mercury, and Lexus, he managed to end on a high note once again. His grandson was able to somehow convince him that he needed a twin turbo V8 Mercedes S550 with 430 hp to go to the supermarket, Lindencrest Diner, and the occasional lunch over by the docks at Bergen Point (a favorite of Joan and himself). Despite practicality perhaps going out the window, he always had a smile on his face when he would come home and say “I can blow the doors off those Honda Civics at the lights!”

Mike was very proud of his Irish heritage – something he held close throughout his life. His many Irish music CDs were always playing either in the house or in the car, and he always loved grabbing some good food and a drink at an Irish pub. Katy Daly’s was certainly his all-time favorite. So much so that he even celebrated Thanksgiving there with the family on more than a few occasions!

More than anything though, Mike loved being “Grandpa.” He was always so happy to hear about the many adventures and accomplishments of his grandchildren, and you could see that his eyes would just light up with excitement when telling others all about them. He loved nothing more than spending time with his grandchildren, watching them grow, and celebrating their achievements. Whether it be attending a game, bringing the kids on a trip to Friendly’s (and letting Regina play the claw game until she won – hence the over 100 stuffed animals she has in her collection), taking Ryan on his weekly trips for pizza at the restaurant Ryan referred to as “the fancy house,” or just being there to provide some encouragement and words of advice. He was so proud of his grandchildren and wanted nothing more than to see them succeed. Despite the negative outlook of his cancer diagnosis nearly 9 years ago, Mike fought hard to stick around as long as possible so that he could rest peacefully knowing his grandchildren were all set on the path to success in life.

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