For decades when Newsday subscribers got their papers every morning, rain or shine, Gary Bendjy was one of the main people who made it happen. In two stints from 1975 to about 2010, in a variety of roles from circulation to sales, the Long Island native was regarded by colleagues as one of the hardest working people in print.

"We'd be starting at 1 in the morning," said his lifelong friend Bobby Rimmer, describing when he and Bendjy worked together in distribution at Newsday in the 2000s. "The trucks would come in to the depot, bringing [freshly printed] newspapers in pallets" for delivery people waiting in vehicles. "We'd have to have the papers out by 5:30 a.m. That was our delivery deadline." And though he, Bendjy and "six or eight other" distribution agents were managers, "If we had p

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