Bobby McGonigal Visits Diana Monaco

By Judy Kestner

Diana Monaco, middle daughter of the FFN founder V.P. Fieg, sent this message (lightly edited) about a visit from her first cousin Bobby McGonigal, youngest son of Emilie Fieg McGonigal, Philip's sister:

Just wanted you to know I had a nice visit from Bobby McGonigal yesterday. Bob's son Tyler lives with his wife about 20 minutes from me in Ft. Montgomery, NY.  Bob is dog-sitting for them while they take a vacation in San Diego, California.

He took the train from Rochester, NY to Croton-on-Hudson NY and was in awe of the sea of cars in the station’s parking lot.

Bob brought some pictures of his family -- wife Mary and sons Kyle & Tyler -- along with some Fieg & McGonigal photos that he had inherited from his mother. I showed him the photos that Steven Fieg had emailed me months ago and, when he saw the picture of his mother, Emilie, at the Fieg picnic he noted that her outfit was green. He said all her clothes were green and she didn’t wear any other color. Do you suppose it was because of her vibrant red hair?


Bob is retired from Eastman Kodak and spends his time hunting and fishing. Mary just got a job in the SUNY Brockport library where they did a background check on her and came up with Uncle Jim, or as they called him, J.J., McGonigal. Uncle Jim had been the head of all maintenance for SUNY Oneonta back when the McGonigals lived in Milford Center, NY., so they said she seemed to be very well connected.


Bill (Doyle) came home while Bob was here and they talked about Rochester, NY where Bill grew up, identifying places they both recognized. Bill spent much of his childhood with the LaVigne family in a cobblestone house on Ridge Road in Spencerport, NY, just outside of Rochester. The LaVignes had 10 children so I guess it was one of those, ‘What’s one more?’ kind of attitudes that Grandpa & Grandma had with Bob Wood in Oneonta at 10 North Sixth Street. The difference was that in Bill’s story, his father died and his mother had a hard time dealing with things whereas Bob Wood’s parents had divorced and Bob was living with his aunt. Bob McGonigal said he passed by that cobblestone house every day on his way to work from Kendall, NY to Eastman Kodak.


Bob was upset that there were no Wegman’s supermarkets in the Croton area but was amazed that we still have an A&P.

Here is a photo of Bobby in his younger days...