Hundreds of fans gathered for a ceremony during which a street in Forest Hills was renamed ‘Walter Becker Way’. Walter Becker co-founded Steely Dan after meeting Donald Fagen, the band's lead singer, in the late 1960s. Becker played guitar and bass with the group and cowrote the songs.
Towns that are planning on renaming streets in honor of current or past residents can use banner printing to highlight the change and to explain the reason.
The ceremony in honor of Becker was held outside of the Balfour Apartment Building on 72nd Drive. Becker grew up in the apartment building.
Among the attendees of the ceremony were people who had known Becker since childhood and fans who had traveled from other continents. One attendee, Howard Rodman, met Becker at the age of 10.
Speaking to the Forest Hill Times, Rodman said about his childhood friend:
“It took Walter Becker to look out at this suburban landscape of postwar six-story housing and recognize it for what it was. Not a bedroom community, not a bridge or tunnel or E train away from Manhattan, but something grand and glorious in and of itself: Forest Hills.”
At the renaming ceremony, Jim Kerr of radio Q104.3 was on hand to ask fans plenty of trivia questions about Steely Dan and to hand out prizes to those who got the answers right.