Obituary: Serge Jelenevsky, 69

Nyack High School Alumnus Serge Jelenevsky, of Valley Cottage, died on June 24 at age 69.

Jelenevsky was a native of Paris and moved to Valley Cottage in 1947. Though he contracted polio in 1959 at age 15, he went on to graduate from Nyack High School in 1962.

He was an avid wheelchair tennis player and won many accolades including a silver medal in the 1969 National Wheelchair Games. 

Jelenevsky later went on to work as the administrator for Tolstoy Nursing Home in Valley Cottage, at PSE&G, as an adjust professor at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Tappan and as a human resource consultant for many organizations, including the U.S. Department of Labor.

He was mentor for Nyack High School’s WISE Program and was an advocate for the less fortunate while serving on the boards of the Tolstoy Foundation, St. Cosmas and Damian Adult Home, and the Rockland Independent Living Center.

His wife of 44 years Lidia; his children Tanya, Alex and Matthew; brother Alex and seven grandchildren survive Jelenevsky.