30 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 11, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Person of the Year
Photo by Allen Ngai
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Michael J. Dowling, Thomas Grech and Mayra DiRico at the Queens Chamber of Commerce St. Patrick’s Day luncheon last year.
Queens Chamber has been breaking
barriers for more than 100 years
As chairperson of the Queens Chamber
of Commerce, Mayra DiRico is responsible
for an organization that has been
advocating for better business throughout
the borough for more than a century.
Here’s some of the chamber’s most notable
milestones:
• January 1912: Chamber holds its fi rst
annual dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel in Manhattan. Addresses by Queens
Borough President Maurice Connelly,
Court of Special Sessions Chief Justice
Isaac Franklin Russell and Tenement
House Commissioner John Murphy.
• September 1912: Chamber moves to
offi ces in the Electric Building (formerly
the Queens Plaza Court Building),
28-11 Queens Plaza North in Long
Island City. A separate dining room is
established as the Plaza Lunch Club,
but is absorbed by the Chamber by the
1920s.
• June 1913: At the request of Borough
President Connolly, Queens Chamber
of Commerce approves the design of a
fl ag for the Borough of Queens.
• June 1915: Members of the Chamber’s
transit committee offi ciate at the opening
of the Queensboro elevated line,
June 22; Chamber Secretary Walter
Willis purchases fi rst ticket.
• July 1919: Chamber luncheon honors
crew members of the fi rst trans-Atlantic
fl ight, which left the Rockaways on May
8, 1919 and landed in Lisbon, Portugal
on May 27.
• September 1921: Chamber accepts its
fi rst female member, Mrs. V. Koelbel
of the Model Brassiere Company,
Elmhurst.
• June 1925: Chamber moves to new offi ces
on the top fl oor of the Crescent Plaza
Building, 24-16 Queens Plaza South,
Long Island City. Facilities include a
conference room, dining room with
daily luncheon service, and club room.
Later the building is renamed the
Chamber of Commerce building; this
name remains today.
• January 1926: Chamber inaugurates
Annual Building Awards contest to
honor outstanding buildings in the borough.
• January 1964: To welcome the arrival
of the New York Mets to Shea Stadium,
Chamber hosts organizational meeting
of the Queens Mets Booster Club
• January 1977: Sister Th omas Francis
of St. John’s Queens Hospital and
Margaret Swezey of Citibank become
the fi rst female members of Chamber’s
board of directors
• April 1983: Margaret “Peg” Swezey of
Citibank is elected the Chamber’s 27th
President, the fi rst woman to hold this
position
• March 1993: Lucy C. Nunziato is
appointed the fi rst woman Executive
Director of the Chamber
• April 1995: Chamber moves to Bulova
Corporate Center, 75-20 Astoria
Boulevard, Jackson Heights.
• March 2016: Mayra DiRico is selected as
the fi rst foreign-born, female President
of the Queens Chamber Board of
Director.
Source: Queens Chamber of Commerce
website, queenschamber.org