Anthony Antonello, Sr.

Anthony Antonello was born on August 17, 1934 in North Bergen, New Jersey.  He was the fifth and youngest child of Joseph and Santa Antonello.  Joseph and Santa were first generation Americans who immigrated to the United States from Messina Sicily.  Anthony was born in his parent's house on Smith Avenue in North Bergen.  His parents called him Nino and he was known by that name to all his friends and family throughout his life. Later, most people called him Tony.

He grew up in the depression era in a neighborhood where boys became street smart at a young age.  Nino was the youngest boy in the family by quite a few years.   His older siblings, sisters Mary, Anna and Louise and brother Johnny had more family responsibility at a younger age than did Nino. They always thought he got away with a lot more mischief than they ever did.  Papa and Mama demanded discipline but, being younger than his sisters and brother, Nino was more free to hang out with his gang of friends from the neighborhood.  To say these boys were unsupervised is an understatement.  They started smoking cigarettes at 12 years of age.  Nino smoked two packs a day until he was 45 when he quit.  Some of his close childhood friends were Tommy Vitale, Bibs Alberici, Nicky Rubellino and Ralph Borsella.  They enjoyed playing PAL basketball.  There were no other organized activities but they played games and competed on their own.  They had a code of honor which respected personal pride, understood a short temper and prized one's ability to fight.  Insults, real or perceived, would be quickly answered with a punch to the ear or throat.  They learned early on to hit the other guy first and hard before he hit you.

Fortunately, Nino was surrounded by his loving family who were never far away.  They instilled good morals and a belief in God.  His mother, Santa, set the example of Godliness.  She walked over a mile to Mass every day.  She always prayed the Rosary for her family.

Those early experiences in the 1930's and 1940's of Hudson County formed the foundation for Nino's life and gave him his straight forward, no nonsense and honest nature.

Nino attended Union Hill High School in Union City, NJ.   He would admit that he didn't put great effort into his studies but his intelligence was evident.  In those days, the better students would skip a grade if they showed the scholastic ability.  Nino skipped a grade in elementary school so he was always the youngest in his class through high school.  He was only 16 years old when he graduated high school.

Shortly after graduation, Nino decided to enlist in the Navy.  He was too young to enlist on his own so Papa had to sign to give permission and allow for his enlistment.  With little fanfare from the family, he shipped out.  He spent four years in the US Navy on an aircraft carrier.  He learned to be an electrician but he also learned about people from other parts of the country and traveled to ports across America and other parts of the world.  He felt the greatest benefit he gained from his Navy experience was the discipline it instilled in him.

While he was home on leave, in 1956, he met his future bride, Camille Pinto.  They met at a dance, began dating and fell in love.  At the time, he was stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.  Ironically, they would eventually move to the Philadelphia area where they lived for his last 42 years of their almost 62 years of marriage.

Camille was also from North Bergen.  You cannot describe Nino's life without Camille because from the time of their marriage, they became two parts of a single person.  It was also a union of two big Italian families.  They started in an apartment in Guttenburg, NJ.  After about two years, they moved into the upstairs of Mama and Papa's house on Smith Ave. with their oldest son, Anthony.  After only a year, Camille's mother died at the age of 42.  Nino's young family moved into the home of Camille's father on Newkirk Ave. so they could help take care of Camille's younger sister and brother.  Sons Joseph and Christopher were born during those years.

Nino's growing family moved to Teaneck, New Jersey in 1962.  The three bedroom Dutch colonial house at 47 Park Ave. was well built.  The property was bigger than most lots in North Bergen with a nicely landscaped front and backyard.  The street was lined with oak trees in a neighborhood with many young families. The youngest son, Steven was born in Teaneck in 1967.

Nino was attending Seton Hall University at night and working during the day.  He started working for Bell telephone.  He didn't particularly like the field work and didn't see a clear path for advancement in the telephone company.  Against the advice of family and friends, he decided to pursue a career in the Life Insurance industry.  He started with Metropolitan Life as a salesman.  It was a job that would discourage most young men but Nino found his strengths as a salesman.  He was willing to pursue any and all leads with dogged persistence and he was honest with clients.  He set higher goals for himself than his bosses set for him and didn't rest until he met his goals.

Nino got involved coaching Little League baseball in Teaneck.  With his management skill, his competitive nature and sons Joe and Chris on his team, he would win the league championship every year and create many great family memories.

The family would usually take vacations in the summers renting in different towns at the Jersey shore.  In the early 70's Nino and Camille purchased a small vacation house in the Jenny Jump Mountains of northeast New Jersey at Silver Lake.  The house was a short walk down a dirt road from the lake where the family would swim, fish and use a row boat where you always had to contend with the weeds in the water which Nino aptly termed "Sargasso" in reference to the Sargasso Straights that ensnared the ships on the voyage of Christopher Columbus.  The house was a small two bedroom bungalow with a screened-in front porch.  The house had no heat and no thought of air conditioning.  Nino had to install a hot water heater so the family could take hot showers.  Silver Lake was certainly not about amenities.  It was about the family having fun together.  Meals were on the back patio or on the front porch.  Nino would say at Silver Lake, we live on "macaroni and well water".

The family moved to 79 Thackeray Rd., Oakland, NJ  in 1974.  The main reason for the move was that the schools were getting bad in Teaneck. The Antonellos quickly made an impact on the Oakland community in sports and school but in just three years there would be another move.

His success at Metropolitan Life and his ever-increasing knowledge of the insurance industry developed into even more success for Aetna Life and Casualty Company.  Nino was offered to manage an insurance  agency for Aetna in Wayne, PA.  The family moved to a brand new home at the end of a cul de sac on 474 Jacques Ln. Media, PA in 1977.

For Nino and his family, the move to Media from North Jersey was like moving to the quiet, undeveloped countryside.  Where Nino grew up, most sports were played in the street.  So when he saw the flat pavement at the end of the quiet street he envisioned a perfect spot for a basketball court.  One of the first things he did in the new house was to set a 20 foot long iron pole into concrete on the street on the side of his property and attach a backboard.  It was several years before he realized that people didn't put a permanent backboard on the street in Media. By then, there was no way it was coming down unless someone complained. Fortunately, the neighbors were tolerant and no one ever said anything.  The court on the street got a lot of use.  Nino and his sons and their friends would play every time they got together for many years.  Nino played pickup games into his late 50s.  He never lost his competitive edge, which is a nice way of saying he played rough to the end.

Now an experienced veteran of the Life Insurance industry, Nino took his career  to Nationwide Insurance and worked in a management capacity.  He developed an expertise in retirement planning and pensions in addition to insurance.

Nino was baptized and raised as a Catholic and he always believed in the Holy Trinity, the Catholic Church and the Sacraments.  But for many years he did not attend Mass regularly.  It wasn't until his midlife, with the influence of Camille who was influenced by her brother, Jimmy, that Nino started to explore his faith more deeply.  He studied Holy Scripture on his own and in groups.  He participated in faith sharing and he and Camille became members of the Marriage Encounter Community at St. Mary Magdalen Church in which they participated for over 30 years.  His faith and love for the Lord grew steadily through the second half of his life.

Nino left Nationwide and was able to retire at the relatively young age of 62.  It was a somewhat insecure time of his life because he wasn't sure what he would do after Nationwide.  About the same time, a new pastor came to St. Mary Magdalen Church, Father Ralph Cheiffo.  Through his activity in various ministries, Nino got to know Father Ralph.  Nino soon joined the new administration at St. Mary Magdalen as a volunteer business manager.  It became the perfect solution for his quandary of what he should do after Nationwide.  Nino was able to use his financial and management skills to benefit the cause of something he loved, his Church.  He helped Father Cheiffo to accomplish great progress at the parish including the new church building, the endowment fund and years of financial success.  The position was also fulfilling socially and in the development of new friendships.  He ended his volunteer work at SMM after 15 rewarding years.

The grandchildren started coming in the '80s and continued until there were thirteen.  Nino and Camille started a tradition of going to Hershey Park every year with their grandchildren.  The first time was in 1989 with the two oldest, Cara and Gabe.  The number steadily increased each year so that the last few years he would rent a bus to fit everyone.  The rules for the Hershey Park days were:  1. No parents could go, only granddad and grandmom.  2.  The grandchild had to be out of diapers  to qualify for the trip.  It was a rite of passage for each Antonello grandchild, who followed:  Anthony,  Phil, Matty,  Phil, Nick, Luke, Dominick, Christopher, Victoria, Justin , Jacob and Alese.

Nino and Camille had big celebrations on their 40 ^th , 50 ^th and 60 ^th wedding anniversaries.

The 50 ^th wedding anniversary was in the summer of 2007.  Their four sons and their wives , Anthony and Pierina, Joe and Sue, Chris and Carrie and Steve and Bridgette and all the grandchildren spent four days at the Hotel Hershey.  The guys played golf and tennis, the girls went to the spa and the kids went to Hershey Park.  Private dinners each night were in a different room.

During his retirement years, Nino and Camille enjoyed traveling more. They took cruises and trips.  He also liked to take care of their property, swimming pool and working in his woods which he turned into his "park".  He kept their backyard beautifully landscaped.  He would say, it's not a back yard, it's a "lifestyle".   It gave him years of enjoyment.  When he got sick and could no longer take care of the yard or even walk up the steps, he still didn't want to move because he loved it there.

He was skilled at managing finances.  He studied different investment vehicles and did his own investing incurring very little risk with a high degree of success.  He was politically conservative.  He was a patriotic American. He believed in traditional family values and he lived it every day.

Nino would often joke that he never missed a meal, only it wasn't a joke.  He had an accurate internal clock for meal times.  When it was time to eat, the clock would not wait. Food was a central theme of his life.  When he called home while on his travels, you would be sure to get a detailed description of the meals before anything else.

Nino was a big sports fan.  He grew up in the New York area as fan of the Yankees in baseball and the Giants in football.  He stayed loyal to those teams even after he moved to the Philadelphia area. Like many fans, he had a love/hate relationship with his teams, even during a single game.  On balance, through the years, the love for his teams far outweighed the hate.  The Yankees, Giants and sports in general were the source of endless discussion and analysis with his sons and grandsons.

Nino was most proud of his sons and grandchildren, the people they had become and their accomplishments.

He got to see his granddaughter, Cara's wedding to Dave Walsh in 2015 and the birth of two great grandchildren, David and James.

One of the family traditions Nino started was crabbing trips in the summers at the shore.  He was able to go out on the boat in the bay with us one more time on his last birthday.  Ever the competitor, the old salt caught the most crabs.  He got to go that day with his great grandson, David.  It was David's first crabbing trip and Nino's last one.

Service Information: Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 11 a.m. at St. Mary Magdalen Church (2400 N. Providence Rd., Media PA 19063). Friends and family may attend the visitation from 9-11 a.m. at the church. Burial will follow at SS. Peter & Paul Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St. Mary Magdalen Endowment Fund. 2400 N. Providence Rd. Media, PA 19063.

Arrangements: Rigby Harting & Hagan Funeral Home
15 E. Fourth St. Media, PA 19063
www.haganfuneralhome.com