Roger Ralph Zoccolillo

Roger Zoccolillo, 91, passed away on August 15, 2019. He was born in New Jersey in1928, the son of Marco and Luigia Zoccolillo. He is survived by his wife, Barbara S. Berry; his two sons, Mark and James; daughter-in-law, Francine; grandchild, Amelia; niece, Janet; and nephew, Louis. He was preceded in death by his sister, Lucy Gioffre. He graduated from Central High School, Paterson, N.J. and received a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Newark College of Engineering in 1949. He was drafted during the Korean War in1951. After basic training at Fort Dix, he was assigned to the Army Chemical Center located at Edgewood, Maryland. He was cleared by the FBI to work on any project requiring top secret clearance. He received orders from the Pentagon to enter into the Master's Degree program at the University of Maryland. Upon completion of the term he was assigned to the pilot plant where nerve gas was produced and the development of more advanced weapons of mass destruction. In May of 1953 he joined The Dow Chemical Company as a sales trainee in Midland, Michigan. After six months of training, he was transferred to the Philadelphia office. In 1956 he was promoted to a product manager in Midland. In 1959, he was asked to join Dow International to create a Dow organization in Milan, Italy responsible for all Dow activities in Italy and the entire Middle East. In 1964 Dow purchased the largest pharmaceutical company in Italy, Ledoga-Lepetit. Lepetit had operations in Europe, South and Central America, Africa, Middle East, and Asia. Upon completion of the acquisition he took over the management of Lepetit. In his last year at Lepetit, Roger was asked to give a review of Lepetit's 100 years of operations at Dow's shareholders meeting in May of 1968. During his years in Italy he was fortunate to have people help him achieve doing four events he’d always wanted to do. The secretary for Lepetit arranged for Roger to climb "The Matterhorn," in the Swiss-Italian Alps in July of 1966. Bill Dixon, his boss at Dow, entered Roger in a two-man bobsled race on the famous Cresta Bobsled Run in Saint Moritz. Herb Dow arranged for Roger to sky dive in Midland on a June afternoon. His deceased wife Stephanie arranged Scuba diving off the island of Jamaica. In 1973 he left Dow to form Global Vision, a company involved with the treatment of the eye and a patent on the first permanent soft contact lens, with a partner. After two years the operation was sold to Cooper Laboratories. His partner took his payment and purchased a number of small cable television companies. Roger was asked to come back to Dow. He joined Dow Badische’s double knit operation, Bentex Mills, in New Jersey in 1974 as Vice President. In 1975, he was promoted to president. During 1976, he transferred to Dow-Badische headquarters in Williamsburg, Virginia. Following a reorganization he was promoted to group vice-president in charge of the Fiber division. In 1977, he was elected to the Board of Directors of The Man Made Fiber Association, and elected to the Chairmanship in 1986. He went to China representing the American fiber producers regarding the negotiations of bilateral agreements with China on exports of textiles from China to the USA. He retired from BASF in 1989. He was a member of the Kingsmill Men's Golf Association, a past Chairman of The Michelob Open, an Officer of Election for James City County, and a member of the Colonial Italian American Organization (CIAO). In retirement, he enjoyed playing cards, visiting family, golf with the Odd Lotters, and listening to great cultural events every weekend on James City County channel 46. During his retirement he returned to Italy a number of times visiting with his close friend and wife at their lovely villa on Lago Maggiore. He enjoyed opera and ballet and attended performances at the Marinsky Opera house in Saint Petersburg and the Bolshoi in Moscow, Russia. A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, October 19 at the Kingsmill Golf Club in the River Room, Williamsburg, VA. Condolences may be shared at www.nelsenwilliamsburg.com.