A man authorities say was fatally struck by a hit-and-run mail carrier’s U.S. Postal Service box truck was a legend in the lower Manhattan music scene making his way home from a big gig when he was killed, the Daily News has learned.
Chester “Chet” Mazur, 66, was crossing Ninth Ave. midblock near W. 55th St. about 5:30 a.m. Saturday when postal worker James Simmons allegedly fatally struck him and fled the scene. Mazur was half a block from home when killed.
The victim “embodied everything that was cool and interesting and weird and creative and edgy and magical and wonderful and kinky and beautiful and free about New York City, especially its art and music world,” Rodney Klein wrote on Facebook. “This is so tragic, he should still be here.“
Mazur was a vocalist for The Rasslers who performed at Otto’s Shrunken Head, an East Village watering hole, late Friday.
“He was just like a huge, huge personality in the Lower East Side. Everybody knows him, and everyone’s known him forever,” said long-time friend Michael Jung, of the band Alice Donut, which frequently performed at the legendary CBGB.
Mazur was “in a great mood,” the night before he died, said Jung, who attended the show. “It was just kind of poignant that he got to play that show, because that show was so hard to actually have happen.”
The show was initially postponed after Mazur suffered an injury, and had to be rescheduled a second time after a bandmate fell ill, Jung recalled.
But the wait was worth it.
“The show was great. [Chet] is a very entertaining person,” Jung said. “He’s has no inhibitions. He’s a very smart guy, he reads a lot. He knows a lot about film history, music. He can recite every lyric that Bob Dylan ever wrote.”
Medics rushed Mazur to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, but he could not be saved.
Mazur grew up in Buffalo, N.Y. and moved to NYC in 1979 to attend Columbia University, his family says. He is survived by his two brothers and numerous nieces and nephews.
“He was the cool uncle from New York City,” said niece Mary Mazur. “We all lived in western New York in this conservative, crazy family and then he was like the cool, liberal New York uncle that encouraged us to read and listen to music.”
“I’m just sad that he got hit and he was suffering,” she added. “The world just got a little less cool, basically.”
Chet was a “very very very New York person, for sure,” his niece said. “He was so super smart. Every time I would visit him in New York, he would be talking about some avant-garde movie that he was going to see or wanting to go to some show off-Broadway.”
Mazur graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with concentrations in English and philosophy and later received a Master’s degree in library science, his family says.
Mazur was the road manager for Alice Donut during the band’s first tour, and was a model for at least two of the band’s album covers. In 2012 he starred in the off-Broadway play “Botanica“, which the New York Times described as an “overripe juxtaposition of scientific jargon and randy flora.”
In addition to his creative pursuits, Mazur had several civil service jobs, including as an administrator for the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, his niece said, and was an advocate for foster youth.
Dozens of tributes to Mazur poured in online after his shocking death.
“Everyone knows Chet and how amazing he was, and everyone’s incredibly shocked,” Jung said. “To have him gone is like a huge hole. He was everywhere, and just to have him not be anywhere now is really not a good thing.”
“We’re so devastated by the loss of Chet Mazur,” read a post on the Facebook page for Otto’s Shrunken Head. “You were definitely one of a kind… we’ll miss you.”
Simmons, 61, was arrested later Saturday for leaving the scene of a fatal crash.
