There are people who go about town and then there are the people who are all about the town. In Great Neck, few people embody that old-school sense of community and hometown pride quite like John “Motch” Motchkatvitz — teacher, mentor, volunteer — born and bred in Great Neck.
Ask Motch about his ties to Great Neck and he brings up, err, farm animals. Back in the day, Motch’s grandfather worked as a union carpenter on the conversion of the Walter P. Chrysler Estate into the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1942. (USMMA was officially dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Sept. 30, 1943).
“But he also raised several cows, chickens and ducks on his farm off Steamboat Road. If he needed extra space for storage, neighbors would let him use their barns, and he’d pay them back with eggs or chickens.”
That version of rural Great Neck — less polished, more personal — still lives vividly in Motch’s memory. A town where neighbors knew one another, where diners functioned as unofficial town halls, and where a sense of community was part of the fabric of life.
Motch appreciated such spaces. For decades, one of his favorite spots was Willie’s Luncheonette (closed in 2021), where generations of his family got ice cream beginning in the 1930s, and later, where Motchkatvitz brought his own kids.
“It was one of those places where people got to know each other no matter what you did for a living,” he said. “They even had a sandwich named after me — the ‘Motcho-Man.’”
I mean, c’mon! That one story alone tells you almost everything you need to know about John Motchkavitz.
At a time when many communities, including our own- let’s face it- feel increasingly fragmented and tribal, Motchkatvitz represents a fading but deeply needed archetype: the “community guy.”
The person who shows up, who joins things. He knows the history, remembers the people, and still believes local connections matter.
For nearly four decades in education, much of John’s work happened inside the halls of Great Neck South High School.
Source: LI Press
