Obituary of Walter P. Drury

June 17, 2021

Walter P. Drury, 84, died peacefully at home in Somers, NY, on June 17, 2021, after a long illness.

Walter was born in New York City to Hannah and Patrick Drury. He was raised in the Inwood section of Manhattan and educated at Good Shepard Elementary School, Power Memorial Academy, and Iona College, where he graduated in 1958. Walter was an avid sports lover. While living in Inwood, he coached a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. After graduating from Iona College, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served at the Czech border during the Berlin Crisis.

He worked in banking for 42 years, retiring from Chase Bank in 1995. While in charge of new business for the bank, he loaned Calvin Klein and Barry Schwartz their first $10,000 to start their new fashion company. Walter said he instinctively knew that Calvin deserved the loan because he saw him personally walk racks of his designs up 7th Ave.

Walter was a devout Roman Catholic throughout his life and a firm believer that anything is possible "with the Man upstairs." After retirement, Walter volunteered as a Eucharistic Minister at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City.

Walter will be remembered as a true gentleman and for his beautiful blue eyes, generosity, humility, sense of humor, selflessness and non-judgmental love of everyone he knew.

In his later years, when Parkinson's Disease robbed him of his strength and stamina, he taught us grace and perseverance and allowed us to show him a small measure of the love and service he had long shown to all of us.

His memory will be cherished and kept alive by all who knew him but especially by his sister Helen Drury McDonagh (Dr. Thomas McDonagh, pre-deceased), nephews Kevin McDonagh (pre-deceased) (Leslie Crofford), Thomas McDonagh (Elisa), and Brian Mcdonagh (Karen), nieces Eileen Cardone and Patricia (Fred Palumbo) and his grandnephews and grandnieces Stephen, Timothy, Michael, and Julia McDonaugh, Patrick, Christopher, and Gregory Mcdonaugh, Andrew Cardone, and Freddie Palumbo. He will always be loved by his "ready-made family," Valerie Girven, Joseph H. Girven, Jennifer Ferentini (Thomas), Jacqueline Hickey (Michael), and grandchildren Matthew and Kaitlyn Ferentini and Brigit, Maeve, and Liam Hickey.

There will be a private funeral Mass to celebrate Walter's life. Instead of flowers, please consider a tribute donation to the James Lenox House Association (49 East 73rd Street, New York, NY 10021 or www.jlhainc.org/donate). To express condolences, you may visit www.greenwichvillagefuneralhome.com.