The 19-year municipal veteran suffered a fatal medical event during a high-speed maneuver to encase a single residential receptacle in compacted slush.
Gary Fogel, 54, a veteran municipal snowplow driver who spent his career perfecting the art of the secondary driveway berm, died Tuesday of a sudden cardiac event while attempting a high-speed pass to completely entomb a single residential mailbox in heavy slush.
Fogel, a 19-year employee of the Onondaga County Department of Transportation, was celebrated by colleagues for his uncanny ability to wait until a homeowner had just put their shovel away before roaring past. Friends noted his long-running, silent feud with the curbside receptacle at 412 Elmbrook Drive, which he successfully buried under four tons of road salt and black ice just moments before his passing.
Gary was an artist, and that mailbox was his canvas. He always said if the post office could still see the little red flag, his shift wasn't over.
He is survived by his wife, Helen, two adult children, and the neighborhood record for most consecutive winters tearing up the exact same patch of corner sod. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that mourners push a heavy mound of wet snow directly across the end of a freshly cleared driveway.