After 15 years, an old white oak is reborn

Friends and volunteers, including Kevin Rafoos, Boy Scout Wyatt Bruch and Pino Daddi, at the completed installation of the white oak cross at South Salem Presbyterian Church. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

By MAUREEN L. KOEHL

What’s 15 years in the life span of a 380-year-old white oak tree?

For three surfing buddies, it was the span of time it took for an idea sown in the collective minds of those young men to transfer part of the trunk of the venerable white oak felled by SavATree on the grounds of the South Salem Presbyterian Church in spring 2008, into the wood and ironwork cross now gracing the west lawn of the White Church on Spring Street, South Salem. 

The tree stood tall in the churchyard for three centuries at the base of the eastern driveway, standing guard over the ancient horse sheds and gravestones and witnessing the comings and goings of the village, but disease had taken its toll and the church deacons called SavATree to remove it.

This is a saga of three friends. 

One is Kevin Rafoss, a South Salem native and owner of Surfside Pools in South Salem. As a child he attended the church and was fascinated by the wooden cross in the sanctuary that had been fashioned from the burnt timbers of the former church that had burned to the ground in January 1973.

Another is Martin Ross, a Montauk surfing buddy whose passion is making furniture from fallen trees. Marty conceived of the idea to create a cross from the trunk for the church — even had a name — White Oak Rebirth. 

The third surfer is Pino Daddi of Massapequa, a cabinet maker and metalwork sculptor, and Kevin’s former college roommate.

Kevin was on the scene in 2008 as the tree was felled, and asked for the logs for his friend, Marty. Tom Gossett of Gossett Brothers Nursery supplied the machine and trailer and took the logs to his yard where one log was milled, while a second was brought to Montauk and milled there by Marty. Both logs were milled with a live edge and bark was left on one side for a rustic look. The wood was left to dry for several years. Marty’s vision of a cross for the White Church remained, but in 2012 he returned to New Zealand, leaving Kevin and Pino promising to finish the task. 

The project, 90 percent completed, was transported to Massapequa and Pino began his sculptural metalwork cross to adorn the front of the piece.

Meanwhile, although Kevin had first contacted the church in 2010, the project was put aside through changes of pastors and dwindling congregants, and then COVID-19 happened, putting yet another hold on the project. 

The white oak which stood on the grounds of South Salem Presbyterian Church succumbed to disease and had to be cut down in 2008. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

It was 2022 before attempts to renew efforts began. By 2022, working with the church deacons and current interim pastor, Mark Salmon, it was hoped that a proper place could be found for the return of the oaken cross by Easter of that year. Plans fell through, and then in 2023 a site was chosen on the plot of the fallen oak and a concrete base was poured, but once again plans were thwarted and the beautiful cross and the friends’ vision was put on hold once more.

Enter Boy Scout Wyatt Bruch, a senior at John Jay High School, and a member of Lewisboro Troop 1, looking for an appropriate Eagle Scout project. Since his troop met at the church weekly, and had for decades, he decided it was time for a Boy Scout “give back.” What better project than this cross fashioned from a tree that had stood on the church grounds for so long and was desperately looking to find a resting place?

It was spring 2024 when Wyatt began working with the church officers and pastor to determine a spot and pursue the necessary town departments for the proper permissions. With permissions and paperwork granted, Wyatt contacted Byram Concrete & Supply in Brewster for a cost estimate for pouring the foundation for the cross. The company offered to supply the concrete for free since it was an Eagle Scout project. Fellow scouts and Wyatt’s dad, Josh Bruch, supplied the manual labor of preparing the site, digging the hole for the base and building the wooden form to receive the concrete.

On Friday, Oct. 18, Pino’s huge van arrived from Massapequa and unloaded the sections of the cross and its metalwork cross adornment, carefully placing them near the new base on the church’s west lawn. In no time, compared to the 15 years of planning and waiting, the 14-foot cross was standing tall and beautiful in the mid-afternoon October sunlight, surrounded by happy and proud gentlemen. Wyatt, Kevin, and each of the others present got a turn to brush on the Australian timber oil preservative while Pino kept up a video commentary for Marty in New Zealand so he could be part of the completion of his White Oak Rebirth vision more than a decade in the making. And Wyatt can celebrate his 18th birthday knowing that his Eagle Scout project is completed before that looming deadline.