John was born on March 9, 1931 in New York City and raised in what F. Scott Fitzgerald called the “City of Ashes” – Corona, Queens.

During high school John, an all-star baseball player, was invited to play for the minor leagues of the Philadelphia Athletics. During the off season he worked for the brokerage firm of G.A. Saxton & Co. and was encouraged by Mr. Saxton to attend college. John graduated from Oneonta SUNY in 1954.

Lalena enlisted in the Army in 1954 and completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey and Fort Lewis, Washington. He deployed to Yokohama, Japan in January 1955 and was assigned to the 586th Quartermaster Company (Subsistence Supply) in Tokyo, where he shipped field supplies to our troops in Korea. He organized mail distribution for the company and published a weekly bulletin, ‘Depot Diary’ for his unit. The company commander knew of his athleticism prior to his military service and asked John to organize baseball & basketball games and other recreational activities to maintain morale.

He attained the rank of Specialist 4 and was honorably discharged from the Army in June 1956 and awarded the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal and United Nations Service Medal.

After military service he became a teacher at Valley Stream North High School after earning a master’s degree in political science from Columbia University and studied for a PhD at New York University. John married Eleanor E LaRosa a teacher at Valley Stream North High School.

John and Eleanor were married for 56 years and together established a real estate office in Manhasset. John was a Senior Vice President at Merrill Lynch and Eleanor sold real estate and was an interior designer.

John is the Founder and Past President of the Kiwanis Club of Manhasset-Port Washington, Inc. and is a NYS Real Estate Broker and security & commodities broker with the Bank of America.