2023 Public Servant of the Year: Diane Wilhelm

More than a quarter-century of distinguished service to the Town of Riverhead came to a close last month at a spirited, jam-packed retirement party for Diane Wilhelm, Riverhead’s beloved longtime town clerk. 

“Diane has been a treasure,” Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said in an interview, describing Ms. Wilhelm as one of the warmest and most talented professionals with whom she has ever worked. “The entire community loves her.” 

Ms. Wilhelm was appointed town clerk in November 2008 then elected to the office a year later. Prior to that she served as the town’s records management officer, registrar of vital statistics and marriage officiant.

“She’s like the most amazing person ever,” said colleague Carol Del Vecchio, a senior account clerk in the town clerk’s office. “She’s very dedicated to the town, to the employees and to the people of the town. She’s very caring and understanding. She’s always trying to help everyone. She goes the extra mile above and beyond everything.”

Deputy town clerk Juliann O’Neill said that when Ms. Wilhelm is not working, she’s an active longtime volunteer in Riverhead, including with Riverhead Townscape, the nonprofit organizers of the Riverhead Country Fair, and at St. John the Evangelist R.C. Church. 

“Whenever there’s a need for any kind of volunteer work,” Ms. O’Neill said, “she will be one of the first to put her hand up and help.” 

During her tenure, Ms. Wilhelm has digitized much of the town’s records, including minutes of Town Board meetings that stretch back to 1792 and are now available on the town’s website. 

“That’s as far as you possibly can go, because the town was founded in 1792,” Ms. Wilhelm told Riverhead News-Review last year. 

The huge project was realized with a $60,000 grant she sought and received from the New York State Archives, which funded a complete review, purge, index and cataloging of archived records. 

The clerk’s office also began accepting credit cards under Ms. Wilhelm. 

Ms. Wilhelm was an active member of the Nassau/Suffolk Town Clerks Association and the New York State Town Clerks Association, where she served as district director from 2013 to 2016. Through the state clerks association, Ms. Wilhelm earned certification as a registered municipal clerk. 

Deputy town supervisor Devon Higgins said that Ms. Wilhelm is both a friend and a role model. 

“She is an absolute gem. I’ve been working with her only for four years, which — certainly relative to other folks here at Town Hall — is not as long. But I can tell you, she was my first friend at Town Hall. She has a heart the size of Texas. And when I tell you she is probably one of the most helpful people in Town Hall, I mean that — whether you’re a constituent, whether you’re a fellow employee, whether you’re Joe Blow off the street, it doesn’t matter. She just is absolutely always willing to help and be of service. And I think that’s one of the reasons why she has been such an effective town clerk, because she truly, truly cares.” 

Ms. Higgins added that Ms. Wilhelm is also a trusted counselor.

“She had two giant chairs in her office, in the old [Town Hall on Howell Avenue] … I used to joke with her that was my therapy chair. And I would sometimes go in and say, ‘Okay, I’m here for therapy.’ We joke and she’d say, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’ We would joke, but she sort of is the matriarch in some ways, sort of the wise, kind of calming presence that everybody looks to now and again.” 

Receiver of Taxes Laurie Zaneski has risen through the ranks with her friend, Ms. Wilhelm. 

“We both started as deputies to our elected officials. So I was the tax receiver’s office’s deputy. She was in the clerk’s [office] … then Diane and I ran [for office] together, and we’ve been running together ever since. 

“Our first year we were both opposed. And then after that the Democrats and the Republicans were like, ‘Diane, so well-known and loved. Laurie’s so well-known. We’re not going to run anyone against them because it’s a waste of the committee’s money.’ So Diane and I have been like, running buddies ever since.”

Others said Ms. Wilhelm’s passion for helping people springs from her humility.

“She is one of the most humble people I know,” deputy receiver of taxes Lisa Richards said in an interview at Ms. Wilhelm’s retirement party. “She wasn’t going to come here tonight, because this was going to be about her and she didn’t want the attention. She’s just a really great person.”

For her decades of sterling service to Riverhead, her sincere joy in helping others and her reliably great sense of humor, Diane Wilhelm is the Riverhead News-Review’s 2023 Public Servant of the Year. 

Previous Winners

2022: Steve Shauger & Kristy Verity
2021: Dawn Thomas
2019: Allen Smith
2018: Dashan Briggs
2017: Richard Ligon
2016: Tom Lateulere
2015: Susan Wilk
2014: Carl James
2013: Dennis Cavanagh
2012: Ed Romaine
2011: George Woodson
2010: Robert Brown
2009: Barbara Grattan
2008: Liz Stokes
2007: Michael Reichel
2006: Gary Pendzick
2005: The Riverhead Ambulance Corps
2004: Richard Wines
2003: Ken Testa
2002: “KeySpan Coalition”
2001: Ed Densieski
2000: Judge Richard Ehlers
1999: Barbara Blass
1998: Vicki Staciwo
1997: Lenard Makowski
1996: Buildings & Grounds
1995: Jack Hansen
1994: Jim Stark
1993: Rick Hanley
1992: Lawyer Jackson
1991: Andrea Lohneiss
1990: Monique Gablenz
1989: George Bartunek
1988: Patricia Tormey