WPCNR PASSAGES. November 19, 2007 UPDATED 1:21 PM November 20, 2007: Joe Davidson, former White Plains Commissioner of Parks and Recreation passed away Sunday evening. Mr. Davidson was brought in as Commissioner by Mayor Alfred Del Vecchio  in 1979, and was responsible for upgrading the city recreation offerings.He created the Noon Day Concerts, the Pops in the Park program, and worked with the community to bring Little League Baseball to White Plains. He also worked with the Little League to structure the deal where White Plains built Gedney Field, among other accomplishments. Davidson was best known for being Commissioner of Parks for New York City under the John Lindsay Administration in the early 1970s. 

Visitation for Mr. Davidson will be from 3 to 5 PM and 7 to 9 PM Tuesday at McMahon, Lyon & Hartnett Funeral Home. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Wednesday at 11 A.M. at Our Lady of Sorrows in White Plains.

Commissioner Davidson is pictured at far right, top row in this commemoration  photo of White Plains only District Little League 20 Championship Team. Mayor Joseph Delfino is at far left. The Coaches pictured at top were Adam Corcoran, Nick Baccero and Rich Massaroni.

Joe Davidson throwing out the First Pitch at Opening of Gedney Field in April, 2002 which he helped make possible. Photos, WPCNR News Archive

CHANGING OF THE GUARD 2002: Rich Massaroni, WPLL President with retiring Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, Joe Davidson prior to throwing out the first pitch. Davidson, in his short talk to the crowd, remembered when there was no little league when he became commissioner in 1979, and how the program had grown to include both boys and girls in his tenure.

In a family-placed obituary today, Mr. Davidson was lauded for many pioneering achievements  while New York City Comissioner of Recreation and Parks, and his tenure with the city, including design and construction of the U.S. Tennis Association complex in Queens, the expansion of the New York City Marathon to all five boroughs of New York City, and establishment of the first playground for the disabled in Queens. Working with David Corcoran in the the mid-90s, Mr. Davidson combined the recreation department and Little League programs into one program which grew baseball and softball to the point where over 1,100 White Plains children play Little League Baseball today.

David Corcoran, President of the White Plains Little League at the time of the Recreation Department-Little League merger said, "He was an all-around good guy."