Bro. Anthony Ambrogio, SDB

Bro. Anthony Ambrogio, SDB 
(1934-2011)

Bro. Anthony Ambrogio died in St. Petersburg on Feb. 7 after a long illness. Family members and his Salesian confreres were with him. Fr. Mike Conway, director of the St. Pete Salesian community, said, “He put up a valiant battle against the illness up to the end, and he passed peacefully.”

Bro. Tony was 76 and had been a Salesian for more than 55 years, a life “spent in education, the arts, and service to the poor,” said Fr. Tom Dunne.

He was born in Pittsburgh on June 2, 1934. His friend Fr. Jim Naughton, principal at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson during Bro. Tony’s second tenure there, eulogized him as “a man of steel extremely proud of being from Pittsburgh.”

Tony entered the “Son of Mary” program for brother aspirants at Don Bosco Tech in 1953. In September 1954 he began his novitiate at Newton, N.J., and on Sept. 8, 1955, he made his first profession of the religious vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity.

Immediately after his profession, now “Bro. Anthony,” he was sent back to DBT for further religious formation and for training in a trade that he would, in turn, be able to impart to youngsters. This was 1955-1959. He took his artistic bent into the commercial art shop, where one of his students was the future Bro. Jerry Meegan, who later shared several Salesian assignments with him and who remembers: “Bro. Anthony and I were in the commercial art shop at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson during my four years of high school. He was just a young brother in postnovitiate training. Bro. Anthony was an exquisite artist regardless of the medium he used: pencil or pen, pastels, or oils. Each work was a labor of love and a masterpiece. This dedicated ability kept this artistry and creativity an integral part of him throughout his life. He could turn a bland school hall into a winter wonderland with his unlimited creativity and imagination, as well with an unlimited budget at times. As he got older he would try his best to make the chapel look its best for the particular feastday. He could always appreciate and compliment some well executed holiday house decorations or a table set just right and proper for a special meal. Appreciation of these finer details was always a joy for him.”
This photo of Bro. Tony with one of his portrait sketches appeared in Paterson's Herald News on May 16, 1975.

After four years in Paterson, Bro. Tony was called to Don Bosco Tech in Boston to teach art. There he also took up teaching English and began working on a bachelor’s degree at Boston College in that subject, which he completed in 1966—mostly while teaching full time. He minored in art. Continuing to teach full-time, he also earned a master’s degree in American literature at New York University in 1974.

Bro. Tony would eventually spend 30 years teaching art and English to juniors and seniors at DBT in Boston (1959-1964, 1966-1967, 1981-1989), Salesian HS in New Rochelle (1964-1966), DBT in Paterson (1967-1976), and Dom Savio HS in East Boston (1976-1981). For 27 years he was also yearbook moderator at the various schools.

Bro. Tony put his artistic talents to use decorating for school socials and Salesian celebrations in each of the schools, and in several he also directed the dramatics programs. He loved to take students to plays on Broadway or in Boston’s theater district. An accomplished chef, he enjoyed cooking for both school and Salesian community activities. He added abundant life to student, parent, and Salesian activities in countless ways.

Fr. John Grinsell, who served alongside Bro. Tony in both Paterson and St. Pete, called Brother “a white tornado, always on the move, cooking, fixing things, helping people, getting something going.”

In a 1975 story on him in Paterson’s Herald News, Josephine Fitzpatrick, a member of the Don Bosco Tech Parents Club, remarked, “Bro. Anthony can do anything.”

In the 1950s and 1960s the Paterson Salesians were largely responsible for Camp Savio in West Milford, N.J. Fr. John Serio has a particular recollection from those days that shows both Bro. Tony’s artistic side and his piety: “I first met Tony when I was a kid at Camp Savio. He had a special job—to prepare the camp for the solemnity of the Assumption. There was a feastday Mass, complete with extra servers, cross, incense, candle bearers, processions. Tony really rehearsed us so that the Mass would be celebrated with dignity and class. In the evening the camp gathered to pray the Rosary around a huge rosary made of sanctuary lamps on a large patch of ground. It was a beautiful sight for a kid to see all those candles flickering in the shape of a rosary on the hillside in pitch dark.”

Those who observed Bro. Tony as the English teacher, whether in Paterson, Boston, or East Boston, agree that in the classroom he was strict, demanding perfection. Not necessarily enjoying his courses, the students respected him. Once they had moved on to college, they appreciated what he had done for them and would often return to thank him “because they were doing very well in their college writing courses and research papers. I think this is the type of legacy that he left the young people at that time,” as Bro. Tom Sweeney reported.

Bro. Tony (2d from left) with commercial art students in Boston in the early 1960s.

Fr. Jim Naughton confirmed that “his students would always come back and tell how easy their English classes were in comparison to what they got from Bro. Tony.”

Fr. Jim also noted that Bro. Tony was “demanding of himself and of his class preparation.” Teaching was a passion for Brother, the former principal stated: “The one thing you could feel coming from his classroom, as you walked the corridor, was the passion and enthusiasm coming from the room—and he expected all his students to have that same desire.”

Fr. Steve Shafran was in practical training in East Boston during Bro. Tony’s period there, and from Brother he learned effective lesson planning, time management in the classroom, and the importance of creativity.

Those who lived and served with Bro. Tony admired the way he used his artistic talents. Fr. Naughton remembered that in Paterson “his talent in art and decorating was beyond belief. People came from miles around to see how he transformed the gym into a tropical paradise or a merry-go-round of horses hung from the ceiling. Give him a roll of ribbon, the mothers club with their scissors, and the results were stunning.”

Bro. Bruno Busatto also was with him in Paterson. He noted that Bro. Tony “had a knack for making friends who loved to work with him and appreciated all that he did for them. He had many decorative ideas to implement with the parents. He made the Salesians’ birthdays very happy because of his preparation of the meals.”

Fr. Grinsell called Bro. Tony’s decorations for various school fundraisers “awesome.” And he would happily assist friends with decorations for important events in their lives such as weddings.

When both Fr. Naughton and Bro. Tony were at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in New York City’s Harlem, said Fr. Jim, “It was a sight to see him surrounded by the senior citizens decorating, painting, and cooking.”

Although Bro. Tony enjoyed painting and sketching as a hobby, his real joy lay in using it to bring people together, to celebrate community. This is what about him stands out most in the minds and hearts of his confreres and friends. He was “very much a community person,” as Fr. Grinsell put it.

For all his strictness in English class, said Bro. Sweeney, “outside the classroom, he was friendly and mixed in well with the students.” He says they knew that Bro. Tony “truly cared for them in a special way.”

Fr. Shafran, still speaking of his life as a young Salesian, wrote: “I remember his great personal skills with people and his gift with art/decorations and community. I believe that many of the things that I have come to know as important in community came from Tony—cooking a good meal, putting together a nice table for birthdays and feasts, decorating for events, etc., and the great skill of interacting with our collaborators in the school environment—staff and faculty of every level. He loved life and had wonderful cheerfulness and optimism. He was the life of the party. I still remember driving the van to faculty and staff homes trick or treating, with Tony dressed as ‘the Godfather’ in pinstriped suit and with cigar, entourage in tow…. Tony had a real clear sense of the things that pointed to happiness, cheerfulness, and joy and were so very important to Don Bosco and Jesus.”

Bro. Tony’s apostolic work took a different twist in 1989 with a posting to St. Thomas in Harlem. There he taught in the vocational education program, worked summer camp, and helped out in various ways for 14 years.

In those years in Harlem he had a heart ailment that several times required hurried emergency trips to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Fr. Naughton recalled: “We had a little agreement—as I went through the red lights, he would say the Rosary out loud—so we both were almost at ease.”

Suffering from that heart ailment, in 2003 Bro. Tony retired to the Salesian community of St. Pete Catholic. His life was a relatively quiet one, but here, as well, said Fr. Serio, “he was best known for being a friend to all. He prepared mountains of food, visited his friends on a regular basis, befriended ‘man’s best friend’ [the community’s dog], and added life to the community.”

Fr. Shafran may speak for many when he states: “I will miss Tony very much, but I will continue to bring those gifts I learned from him to the young and colleagues I serve and to the community I am part of. I will forever be grateful to him.”

On the occasion of his 50th anniversary in 2005, Bro. Tony said that he had persevered in his vocation because Mary Help of Christians was at his side, and St. John Bosco’s educational system had inspired him.

Funeral rites will be celebrated at St. Jude’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg on Feb. 11, presided over by Bishop Robert Lynch, and at the Salesians’ Marian Shrine in Haverstraw-Stony Point, N.Y., on Feb. 14. Bro. Tony will be buried in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen, N.Y.