“Welcome to the neighborhood.”
He spent forty-six years inside one department, working on a single stubborn idea — that where a person lives should never decide what they get to become. This is the record he left behind: the films he shot, the rooms he stood in, and the people he stood up for.
My father carried a camcorder to work for twenty years. Nobody asked him to. He just believed that what was happening in those rooms deserved to be kept.
When he died, I found the tapes — boxes of them, along with hundreds of photographs and a folder of certificates he had never once mentioned to me. Forty-six years of federal service, and he had never bragged about a day of it.
So I digitized all of it. Every tape, every photograph, every award. What you'll find here isn't polished, and it isn't short. It's a public servant's actual working life: the training sessions, the ribbon cuttings, the computer labs going in, the residents graduating. The unglamorous middle of the work, where the work actually happens.
He would have hated a website about himself. But this isn't really about him — it's about what he was doing, and the people he was doing it with. I think he'd allow that.
— Billy Miecuna · Visit his memorial
Forty-six years, one department, and a career that tracked the whole arc of American housing policy — from block grants and paper files to broadband in the basement of a housing project.
Before Washington, there was Tarrytown — a village office on the Hudson, a desk piled with files, and a young man in a pressed shirt learning how municipal government actually moves. He was Assistant Director of Community Development for the Village of Tarrytown.
He joined the federal government in 1977 and spent the early years in community development: block grants, project reviews, and the slow procedural grind that turns an appropriation into a building. By the mid-1980s his name was going up on the signs out front.
It is a strange and ordinary kind of monument — a plywood board at the edge of a parking lot, painted with the Secretary's name, the Regional Administrator's name, the contractor's name, and near the bottom, his.
HUD launched the initiative in 1995 with a deceptively simple premise: put a computer lab inside the housing, and staff it. Not a program residents had to travel to. Not a waiting list. A room downstairs, with machines that worked and someone who would sit with you.
This became his life's work. He built centers, trained the coordinators who ran them, wrote the curriculum for HUD's own staff training, and spent years on the road making the case that technology access is housing policy — that a lease and a locked door are not enough if the person inside can't get to a job application.
The photographs from those years are almost all the same photograph, taken a hundred times in a hundred buildings: a folding table, a row of new machines, and somebody's grandmother sitting down at a keyboard for the first time.
The work took him everywhere. Taino Towers in East Harlem. Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement. West Harlem Group Assistance. Park Lake. Fox Hills. Then the national circuit — San Antonio, San Diego, Miami, Lake Buena Vista — where he showed up as presenter, committee member, and award winner, often on the same badge.
He also brought his son. In the conference photographs from 2005, a boy in a blue blazer stands at his father's elbow on stage while the award is handed over. He is nine years old and visibly unsure whether he is allowed to be there.
In 2009 he was recognized by the Secretary of HUD for his work implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — moving relief money out the door, fast, during the worst of the financial crisis. He kept going for another fourteen years after that.
His office was at 26 Federal Plaza, in Lower Manhattan, a short walk from the World Trade Center. He was there on September 11th and he was there in the months after, in the same air as everyone else who went back to work downtown. The leukemia that eventually killed him came from that air.
In April 2019 the department gave him a certificate for forty years of service to the government of the United States. He put it in a folder with all the others and did not mention it — and then he went back to work for four more years.
He retired on December 30, 2023. The award they gave him counts it at forty-six years.
Assembled from the certificates, plaques, and conference badges he kept in a single folder. Every entry below is transcribed from a document in the archive.
Municipal government on the Hudson — the first desk, and the first files. He was doing community development a decade before the federal job made it a career.
Counted back from his retirement award, which credits him with forty-six years of service on December 30, 2023. His 1979-dated forty-year certificate from 2019 counts two years fewer — service-computation dates and award milestones don’t always agree. Both documents are in the archive.
For high quality performance which contributed significantly to the economy and efficiency of operations in the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Division. The earliest award in the folder. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Substantially exceeded normal job requirements in one or more of the most important job elements during fiscal year 1985. Joseph D. Monticciolo, Regional Administrator / Regional Housing Commissioner
Greenport, Suffolk County. The board went on record that its safe and affordable housing programs “could not have been established nor could they be functioning” without his insight, support, advice and encouragement. Village of Greenport Board of Trustees
His testimony is recorded in the Second Circuit’s opinion in a landmark fair housing case: HUD had determined that the proposed Huntington Station site sat in an area of high minority concentration and was therefore an inappropriate location for federally subsidised housing. The Court of Appeals held that a Title VIII plaintiff need only show discriminatory impact; the Supreme Court affirmed later that year. 844 F.2d 926 (2d Cir. 1988), aff’d 488 U.S. 15 (1988)
For developing a PC application which resulted in saved staff hours and improved efficiency — the first of several awards for putting computers to work inside the department. Geraldine McGann, Acting Regional Administrator
A joke certificate from his colleagues, printed and sealed in earnest: for his “infectious enthusiasm and boyish charm,” the Court deems him forever an honorary member of the division, his participation in all social functions “determined to be an eligible activity.” It entitles the bearer to one free waiver of the CDBG Regulation of his choice. Signed and sealed by the Entitlement Communities Division
For extraordinary effort and superior achievement in assessing the administrative requirements of the Community Development Block Grant program. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
The Elva McZeal computer learning centre opened in Brooklyn — the first Neighborhood Network in HUD’s New York jurisdiction — founded and run by Dorothy Jones, president of the tenants’ association. He filmed its eighteenth graduation in 2002, nominated her for departmental recognition, and spoke at its twentieth commencement in January 2004. HUD New York “Good Stories,” February 6, 2004
For demonstrating innovation and initiative in the creation or application of computer software or hardware systems. Maxine F. Griffith, Secretary’s Representative for New York / New Jersey
For extraordinary cooperation, consideration, and assistance to our Division. Multifamily Housing Division, HUD Newark Office
For supporting the Neighborhood Networks mission: “To create vibrant communities that foster life-long learning and economic opportunity.” National Field Director, Neighborhood Networks
Completed the executive program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Harvard University
Filmed across two visits in December 2001 and January 2002, including the reception at Taino Towers.
For helping establish the Mamie L. Wilson Towers HDFC Neighborhood Networks Computer Learning Center, providing internet-based technology services for senior residents in Harlem. West Harlem Group Assistance, Inc.
In recognition of your determination, hard work and dedication. East Harlem Pilot Block, ARCO Management & Taino Towers Residents
“Maximizing HUD Resources to Accelerate the Growth and Number of Neighborhood Networks Centers.” Office of Multifamily Housing Programs
For your dedication, commitment and support of the Neighborhood Networks initiative. Presented at the 10th Anniversary National Training Conference, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
His badge carries three ribbons: Presenter, Conference Committee, Award Winner.
Honored for service to the American public in a time of national crisis — “your efforts played a critical role in creating a new standard for transparency and speed in distribution of funds.” Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
A handwritten note in the folder: “In recognition of your hard work and commitment to the mission of CPD. Thank you.” Mercedes Márquez, Assistant Secretary
Alongside the federal job he had by then held for more than thirty years, he worked at Apple Retail. This certificate marks the Creative Strategies programme and lists the Apple Creative: inspire, empower, enrich lives, motivate, engage, adapt. Signed by Ron Johnson, Executive Vice President, Apple Retail
“You have brought passion, creativity, and tenacity — simply because that’s what the pursuit of excellence requires… you have made the kind of impact that changes people’s lives.” Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer, Apple
In recognition of forty years of service in the Government of the United States of America. Office of Community Planning and Development, HUD
“Presented upon the occasion of retirement from your career in the federal service. This award is in recognition of the faithful service to the United States Government and your individual contribution to the mission and goals of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.” His retirement award: William Miecuna · 12/30/23 · 46 Years of Service
The slideshow he assembled for the 2007 Neighborhood Networks conference — the residents, coordinators, and centers of the initiative he spent a decade building.
Every one of these was scanned from the folder he kept them in. Click any document to read it in full.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Office of Community Planning and Development
Signed by Shaun Donovan, Secretary of HUD
Neighborhood Networks Coordinator
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
East Harlem Pilot Block & Taino Towers Residents
HUD New York / New Jersey
West Harlem Group Assistance, Inc.
Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity Division
Signed by Ron Johnson, EVP, Apple Retail
Signed by Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer
Office of Multifamily Housing Programs
Every tape he shot, digitized and playable — training sessions, conferences, site visits, and speeches. Machine-generated transcripts let you search the spoken word across the entire collection.
Watch and search245 photographs spanning forty-six years — the Tarrytown village office, the HUD softball league, the ribbon cuttings, the computer labs, and the wall of certificates he kept quiet about.
Browse the collectionThis site is about the work. The memorial site is about the man — a son's farewell to his father, written in his own words, with the family photographs and the tribute film.
Visit the memorial