DrJohnAmbrose's Blog

Our long-lived and much-loved Uncle Dick passed away at age 90 after a recent age-related illness. Dick was the youngest son of Italian immigrants Grace (Grazia) Palmieri —-after whom many a female family member is named—and Gaetano Colaneri —whose roots in the mountainous village of Castiglione in Abruzzo Uncle Dick was ever seeking to investigate.

Dick was the apotheosis of the term “gentleman and scholar.” His refined manners, good looks and velvety eloquence reminded one of the British actor James Mason.

The last of ten children who grew up in Jersey City, he attended Dickinson Highschool and graduated from Jersey City State.
He served as a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy receiving two Bronze Stars and a Distinguished Service Award in the South Pacific during World War II, and was married for an incredible 58 years to the stunning and gracious Bernadette Mastro. That she adored him was obvious to all. She was his beloved and prized beauty. Of Aunt Bernaette I have the following anecdote.

Once, while I and Aunt Sadie perused a an antique photo album we came upon a picture of Bernadette in her youth, and I was forced to observe that, “She was as beautiful as a Hollywood starlet.” Aunt Sadie was quick to respond, “She still is!”

Dick completed graduate studies at NYU then became an educator, first a teacher and administrator in the Newark public schools, then as principal in East Brunswick. Eventually he was Director of Alumni for Jersey City State, but continued on after retirement as president of the Essex County Retired Educators Association and on the Board of the NJ State Opera.

Uncle Dick was always fun and enlightening to be around. Puns, witticisms and cultural references poured out of him with a spontaneity that belied their profundity. He could be critical of the foibles around him, but never bitter. He loved baseball and Italy, food and drink. He prepared an awesome dry martini. He could cook (though not quite at the level of Aunt Bern), write, expound on the Roman Empire, history, current events and art. He loved opera and used his exalted status as the uncle of conductor Joseph Colaneri to swing us premium tickets and backstage passes at the Met on more than one occasion.

Lately he liked exploring poems that touched on the subject of Italy, reading about Byzantium, hanging around with the crowd of recent immigrants at San Remo coffee shop in Totowa, taking lunch at the Short Hills Mall and going for walks-and-talks around towns in NJ. Once, on a recent excursion, we found ourselves quite by chance wandering into the Livingston Mall. Uncle Dick asked where we had arrived, and I told him, “The Livingston Mall, Uncle Dick.”

He thought for a moment, then smiled and responded, “Ah! The Livingston Mall, I presume.”