Obituary of Sergio Diaz

Sergio was born on September 9, 1935 to the late Neftali and Aurelinda Diaz in the small town of Sabana Iglesia in the Dominican Republic. As the first-born child of a family that would eventually surpass a dozen children, Sergio had the opportunity to be sent away to school at a young age. As a teenager, Sergio studied for the priesthood at a Seminary in Santo Domingo. He excelled at his studies, earned a Bachelor's Degree in philosophy and was awarded a scholarship to pursue an advanced degree in Rome. Afterwards, he returned to the Dominican Republic in 1959 to explore other work. Not long after, he fell prey to the Trujillo regime there and was imprisoned as a political prisoner. Fortunately, he was released a year later after the assassination of Trujillo in 1961, at which time he immigrated to the United States to begin a new life in New York City. In America, Sergio took up work as a freelance travel agent, met and married Sandra Bada, who would become his lifelong partner for over 50 years, and eventually formed his own travel agency in Corona, Queens. Sergio's work there enabled him to help many family members, friends and acquaintances to attain visas to immigrate to the United States and allowed Sergio and Sandra to travel across the world. When not working, Sergio loved communicating with his many family members, either by phone or by short-wave radio (he was an amateur radio operator) and especially playing dominoes with them. Sergio is survived by his two sons, Allen and Ludwig; his grandchildren Juliette and Gabriel; his siblings Geronimo, Modesto, Aurelita, Santos, Ignacio, Johnny, Amaury, Angela, Juan Luis, Elvis, Franklyn and Yesenia; and their relatives. Visitation will be Saturday, April 2 from 12-4PM at Edward D. Lynch Funeral Home, Inc, 43-07 Queens Boulevard, Sunnyside, NY. Funeral Mass will be held at 10:00 am on Monday, April 4, 2022 at St. Teresa RCC, 44th Street And 50th Avenue, Woodside, NY.