In memory of Vinny: Riverhead teacher’s mom, brothers lead 5th annual motorcycle run

Five years ago this month, Riverhead High School art teacher Vincent Nasta perished in a plane crash during an air show performance at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in upstate New York.

Family and friends of the much-beloved teacher held a motorcycle run yesterday to benefit the Vincent Nasta Foundation, established in his memory to fund scholarships for graduating high school seniors pursuing art, music and aviation. Each year, the foundation awards three $1,000 scholarships in Nasta’s memory: one to a Riverhead High School art student; one to a music student at Nasta’s alma mater, William Floyd High School; and one to a student looking to pursue aviation.

Those were three things Nasta was passionate about, said his brother, Joe, of Ridge, a Suffolk County corrections sergeant. He also loved riding his bike, a 2000 Honda, which another brother, John, rode in yesterday’s run from Deer Park to the Maples in Manorville.

Joe Nasta had a special passenger on his 2009 Harley for the run: his 75-year-old mother, Carol.

It was her second — and longest — ride on a motorcycle.

“It was fun — and very comfortable,” Carol Nasta said. “It even has arm rests.” The ride was something she wanted to do to mark her 75th birthday July 17 and the fifth anniversary of her eldest son’s death, she said.

All told, 68 riders participated in yesterday’s run. They had a Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department escort. Among them, Artie Rast, a Riverhead auto mechanic whose daughter, Tanya was awarded a Vincent Nasta Memorial Scholarship in 2012. She studies art at Purchase College, he said.

Rast said when he heard about the motorcycle run he felt he had to participate. The scholarship really helped his family and he wanted to be able to give back.

“Vinny’s giving and loving spirit lives on in all the students he touched through the years and in the students who will benefit from the scholarships that never even knew Vinny,” Joe Nasta said. “That’s just the kind of guy he was,” he said.

Nasta’s widow, Kathy, an educator who works at Brookhaven National Lab, didn’t participate in the run but was at The Maples for the barbecue yesterday afternoon. She said a group at the lab donated $2,000 to the foundation this year, which will allow the foundation to give s fourth scholarship in 2014.

“We’re thinking of doing a special science student scholarship at Riverhead High School,” she said.

A veteran pilot and commercial flight instructor, Nasta, 46, was a regular performer at the aerodrome summertime shows. On Aug. 17, 2008, he was operating a replica World War I- era, single-engine biplane, performing in a simulated dogfight with a replica German plane, when, near the end of the performance, his plane went into a spin and crashed in the woods, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

The death of the much-beloved teacher sent shockwaves through the Riverhead school community and beyond. Students quickly set up a Facebook group in his memory, where, five years later, former students still post messages, memories, artwork and videos. The group currentlyhas 1,139 members.

“One of my latest Vinny,” wrote Danielle R. Pellicci last summer with a drawing she posted to the group page. “Thinking of you always…. With every work if art I create. It sure ‘doesn’t suck’ getting paid to do what I love… Thank you for everything you taught me. Miss you terribly,” she wrote.

“Vinny- I hope you are looking over me in the morning as I greet my first class of the year. It’s because of you I get to shape young minds. Miss you buddy,” wrote another former student, Jeremy Gibbons, now a teacher.

Students and teachers also set up a memorial garden in the courtyard at the high school, outside Nasta’s classroom.

Nasta, who grew up in Mastic Beach and lived in Wading River, joined the Riverhead High School faculty in 1991. He taught computer graphics and AP art. He was posthumously named Educator of the Year by the News-Review for 2008.

Nasta’s family is having a Mass said in his memory on the anniversary of his death, Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. John the Baptist R.C. Church in Wading River.

Photo captions, from top: 1. Framed portrait of Vincent Nasta on an easel at The Maples in Manorville yesterday, where a fundraiser motorcycle run from Deer Park finished with a barbecue; 2. Nasta’s mother, Carol rode with her son, Joe on his Police Edition Harley, while another son, John, rode Vinny’s 2000 Honda bike in the run; 3. Nasta’s widow, Kathy, shares old photos with Vinny’s mother, Carol, his lifelong friend, David Jensen, and his brother, John. 4. Vinny Nasta’s Honda motorcycle, driven in the run by his brother, John, is parked outside the Manorville pub where the fundraising motorcycle run ended with a barbecue yesterday.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti

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