Winifred B. Scelsa

Winifred (Freddie) Bauman Scelsa of Roseland, NJ, age 77, passed away on May 18, 2025 at the Cooperman Barnabus Medical Center in Livingston, NJ from complications related to cancer. Freddie was a teacher, a business owner, a radio pioneer, a patron of the arts, and a cherished wife, mother and grandmother.

Born on January 30, 1948 in Newark, NJ, Freddie was the youngest daughter of Walter and Rita (Kaufman) Bauman. She graduated from West Orange Mountain High School in 1965 and attended Upsala College, where she and her boyfriend (later husband of fifty-five years) Vin Scelsa were foundational figures in the establishment of the college radio station WFMU in East Orange, NJ as a hub for countercultural music, politics, and ideas.

Freddie’s career after college began with teaching elementary school, both in more traditional school settings and in an experimental “school without walls.” In her late twenties, she joined her sister Margery Galluzzi and her brother Ed Bauman in working at their family business, Walter Bauman Jewelers, eventually becoming the president of the company. Started by their father Walter Bauman as a one-man watch repair service, the business grew into a successful chain of eight stores throughout New Jersey. Freddie retired in 2012, passing the business, along with her siblings, on to the next generation, under the care of her nephew Walter Bauman.

After retirement Freddie returned to teaching. She ran several ESL classes at Livingston Library until Covid hit. She then became a caretaker to her husband Vin as he navigated health issues, and an extremely devoted grandmother to her granddaughter Frida Villalobos-Scelsa, born in 2022. Freddie and Vin split their time between their home of forty-five years in Roseland, NJ, and a small home in upstate New York near their daughter Kate Scelsa, her wife Amanda Villalobos, and Freddie’s adoring granddaughter.

Freddie had an extraordinary ability to make those around her feel valued, always the one that friends and family confided in as their “unofficial” therapist. Her wisdom, humor, and innate ability to sense other people’s feelings made her someone that friends always turned to, each one feeling they had a special bond with her.

She took great joy in supporting numerous arts institutions and theater companies, calling herself a “professional audience member” – always clapping the loudest, laughing the hardest, and embodying and encouraging the belief that art is the most important thing that we have.

In addition to her immediate family, Freddie is survived by her siblings, in-laws, and many cherished nieces and nephews.

A private celebration of life will be held for family. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Planned Parenthood, WNYC.org, or the charity of your choice.