D’Alessio family’s roots run deep in West Orange

Photo Courtesy of Ted D’Alessio
Pictured giving trims to clients at the Eagle Barber Shop, circa 1920, are Gerry D’Alessio, left, the proprietor, and Jerry D’Alessio, his son.

By Ted D’Alessio / Special to the Chronicle

WEST ORANGE, NJ — There are many families in West Orange whose roots run deep in the township. One of them is the D’Alessio family.

In the late 1800s, Gerardo D’Alessio, my grandfather, made a solo journey from Naples, Italy, to America and arrived at Ellis Island at the age of 14. He stayed with his uncle in Brooklyn. Over the course of the following year he trained to be a barber.

Just before he left for America, the D’Alessio family and the Piccarillo family had arranged a marriage between Gerardo and Angelina Piccarillo. The families wanted to provide their children with an opportunity to attain a better lifestyle than what was available to them at the time in Italy. The following year, Angelina, at the age of 14, traveled to America with her aunt. Gerardo and Angelina were married soon afterward. My grandparents relocated to Orange and then bought a home at 429 Main St. in West Orange. The family barber shop was located on the first floor and they raised their family on the upper two floors. Remarkably, at the age of 15, my grandmother gave birth to her first child, Rose, and proceeded to have 13 more children.

Education was strongly emphasized by my grandparents. They quickly realized that the first step toward achieving the American dream was to obtain a public school education. My grandfather taught himself to read and write English. Times were difficult for immigrant families, though, and school had to be balanced with supporting the family through work. My grandparents’ first few children attended public school up through the eighth grade, but were forced to discontinue their schooling in order to work and help support the family. Many of my aunts worked at the Edison Factory on Main Street in West Orange on the assembly lines making munitions and supplies for our troops during World War I and World War II. My Aunt Connie, their fifth child, was the first to graduate from high school.

My grandfather established the Eagle Barber Shop in the early 1900s, and it was sold in 1970. Over the years, Gerardo became known as “Gerry the Barber.” Because my grandfather could speak, write and read both English and Italian he became a pillar in the community. He was well respected and his business became a focal point in the neighborhood. Eventually, my grandparents moved to 55 Mississippi Ave. in West Orange and remained there for the remainder of their lives.

My father, Theodore Roosevelt D’Alessio, the third youngest, enlisted in the the 82nd Airborne Signal Corp of the U.S. Army in 1943 and my Uncle Ray enlisted in the Navy soon afterward. Like many young men at the time, my Uncle Ray lied about his age in order to serve his country. Their older brother, Jerry, was in the Army Engineer Corps. One of the first to go ashore on D-Day, he also earned a Purple Heart at Saint-Lo, France, and his outfit was one of the first to cross the Rhine.

After the war, my father attended Panzer College, which is now part of Montclair State University, on the GI Bill. He was the first in his family to graduate from college and subsequently earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from New York University. He became the principal of Hazel Avenue Elementary, where he established one of the first special needs classrooms in a public school setting. In the early 1960s, he was elected to public office, serving on the West Orange Township Council for two terms and also as council president. In 1967 he was selected to be the superintendent of schools in West Orange, a position he held until 1982.

Uncle Ray, after serving in the Navy once again during the Korean War, joined the West Orange Fire Department and eventually became deputy chief. My Uncle Ed earned his doctorate in education from Fordham University, served as assistant commissioner of education during the Carter Administration, and became president of several universities including Seton Hall University in 1983, where he was the school’s first lay president. The other siblings in the family — Rose, Mary, Margaret, Connie, Patrick, Stella, Viola, Vivian, Lee and Loretta — added to the sense of community and family in West Orange for decades, working throughout industries and trades, raising families and performing public service.

Several years ago, the West Orange Chronicle published an article about the West Orange Tigers, a sandlot football team sponsored by the Collins family. They practiced at the Collins estate, located on a large parcel of land near the corner of Prospect and Mt. Pleasant avenues, where the Carteret School was once built. Collins would send his limo down to Tory Corner to pick up my father, my Uncle Ray, their nephew Frank DeCheser and other “down the hill” boys to practice football with his sons.

Collins’ goal was to toughen up his sons, whom he felt were getting soft living in an affluent and overprotected lifestyle. They played other teams in the area and as far away as New York and Delaware. My father played quarterback and was often referred to as “My little All-America” by Mr. Collins. He received a football scholarship to the University of Nevada, but the war broke out and he enlisted. My father and uncle were integral members of the West Orange Tigers and this part of West Orange history.

My grandparents raised their children to be kind, compassionate and patriotic citizens of America, while retaining the best from their Italian heritage — love of family and care for others. This pride for “la famiglia” and our Italian heritage was instilled in our parents by their parents, and in us by them, and so on down the generations. My parents’ Christmas Eve party at our home at 52 Mississippi Ave. was legendary. Family and friends would gather throughout the evening and food was served all night long in the Italian tradition. It was not unusual for more than 80 people to stop by our home for “The Vigil” during the holiday evening.

And the D’Alessio family continued to emphasize education. Many members of the second generation were products of the fine West Orange School District and other public school districts in the area. The second generation became the beneficiaries of the sacrifices our grandparents and parents made over the years. These sacrifices provided us with many opportunities that were not previously available to them.

Our large extended family — I have 54 first cousins — now consists of numerous physicians, such as Dr. John D’Alessio, a teaching physician at University of Connecticut; lawyers, such as Lori D’Alessio Margiotta, vice president at Merck, and Matt Scola, West Orange town attorney for nearly 30 years; teachers and administrators, such as Ted D’Alessio, who recently retired after 40 years as a teacher, coach and administrator in the Millburn Township School District; politicians, such as former U.S. Rep. Marge Roukema, who represented the 5th Congressional District for 22 years, was the longest serving woman in Congress at the time and was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the most influential women in Washington, D.C.; civil servants, such as Ray D’Alessio, a retired Drug Enforcement Agency supervisor; and business people, such as Frank Spendlove, senior vice president of finance at Warner Lambert. Many of these individuals are proud products of the West Orange school system.

Over the years, many of our family members moved out of the area. Presently, only Edward, the youngest of Gerard and Angelina’s 14 children, is alive. Whenever the family does get together, we often reminisce about our years growing up in West Orange with fondness and gratitude. Our conversations always seem to revolve around our participation in Little League baseball, PAL football and cheerleading, high school athletics, and other extracurricular and community-sponsored activities. For our ties to such organizations, four members of our family have been inducted into the West Orange Hall of Fame. Town landmarks such as Colgate Park; Pals Cabin; Degnan Field, which was formerly called Vincent’s Pond; The West Orange Bus Loop; the Arena; Ginny Duenkel Pool; Eagle Rock Reservation and the Fourth of July celebration — although some are no longer in existence — are discussed as well. The wonderful opportunities the town of West Orange provided its youth, at the time, are even more appreciated today than ever before.

Whenever someone asks me where I am from, I proudly respond: “My hometown — West Orange.” If I were to put into words just how I feel about growing up in West Orange, I could do it in one sentence: “West Orange … it was a great place to live, to grow, to learn and to play.”

Ted D’Alessio, formerly of West Orange, wrote this retrospective along with several of his family members.