Joseph P. Long, property casualty underwriter [The Buffalo News, N.Y.]

Feb. 01--Dec. 8, 1927--Jan. 31, 2012

Joseph P. Long, a retired certified property casualty underwriter for Allstate Insurance Co., died Tuesday in Mercy Hospital. He was 84.

Born in South Buffalo, Mr. Long served in the Navy as an enlisted naval correspondent, covering the occupation of Japan at the end of World War II.

After his military service, he attended Canisius College, graduating in 1952. Mr. Long worked as a firefighter in the Buffalo Fire Department for a few years during the mid-1950s and then began working for Allstate, where he earned his designation as a certified property casualty underwriter in 1987 and was named a general agent in 1988. He retired in the mid- 1990s after 35 years of employment with the company.

Mr. Long was active in St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, where he served as a trustee and member of the Diocesan Vicariate. He earned the church's St. Joseph the Worker Medal for heading the parish chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and running the parish's bingo games every Saturday for 25 years. He also served as a docent at the Buffalo&Erie County Naval and Military Park, where he led numerous tours of the docked ships.

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, the former Margaret A. McDonald; a son, Patrick J.; a brother, Michael R.; and three sisters, Bernice Keller, Margaret Doyle and June Lalley.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 11:15 a.m. Saturday in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 450 Abbott Road.

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