Francis G Orrico

Francis Gennaro Orrico’s life played out like a classic American immigration success story. He was the second child of four (Connie, Frank, Dee, and Tony), and the first-born son, of Italian immigrant Anthony Orrico and Rose Marie Venutolo who, though born in America, grew up speaking Italian as her first language.

Growing up in Jersey City, NJ, Frank was an All-County tackle for Lincoln High’s football team. Upon graduation, he expressed to his parents his ambivalence regarding continuing on to higher education. His wise-in-the-ways-of-the-world father, who had not been given the privilege of formal education, knew just the thing to solidify Frank’s thoughts on the matter and immediately extended an offer of full-time employment at the family butcher shop. Frank’s tales from this formative chapter in his life were both completely hilarious and slightly frightening. They included both the Casu Martzu (Sardinian live maggot cheese) incident as well as what happens when you’re a teenager left in charge and in walks a determined woman with a raffle-prize live turkey on a leash fashioned from a rope demanding that the feisty bird be butchered. Frank didn’t sidestep the challenge laid out before him but, needless to say, within no time he was eager to enroll in Saint Peter’s University. Anthony released Frank from his duties at the store, but only after he cleaned the ceiling.

Serving as an inspiring role model, Frank chose a career path that would lead both him, and later his younger brother Tony, to dental school, Frank at NYU’s College of Dentistry and Tony at UMDNJ. He married his Italian-American childhood sweetheart, Marie, and joined the U.S. Army Dental Corps, starting as a lieutenant at Fort Dix and rising to level of captain by the end of his two years of service.

Back to civilian status, Frank started what would become a thriving private practice in Palisades Park, NJ. Always personable and fond of exchanging good stories, he became unbelievingly fluent in “patient speak” even when mouths were stuffed with gauze and numbed by the needle. Never one to miss an opportunity for a witty exchange, Frank knew just what to say when he greeted a new patient who was known at the time to be the top medical malpractice attorney in Bergen County. “We’re not going to hurt each other, counselor, now are we?” he deadpanned, drill in hand, to the patient. The pact was honored by both parties.

Frank enjoyed many years as a very successful dentist with some patients dutifully returning back East for appointments years after relocating to the West Coast. At the height of his career, he had the courage, or some might say naïveté, to marry a strong-willed mother of six who challenged him both intellectually and politically. He and Audrey shared an intense love for gourmet foods, the world-class cultural offerings of nearby Manhattan, and each other. Their horizons were broadened both figuratively and literally when they retired to Colorado.

A gifted athlete, Frank had always been intrigued by both golfing and skiing, but his fear of damaging his hands, and thus compromising his dental skills, had kept him on the greens but off the slopes. Imagine the joy he felt upon learning that retiring to temperate Fort Collins, CO, allowed him to golf the sunny plains and ski the snowy peaks in the same week, if not the same day. Within no time he was tearing up the black diamonds and showing his visiting nephew the ropes like a pro.

Audrey and Frank enjoyed a vibrant grandparental existence as three of her grown children had settled in Fort Collins and their offspring, and eventually their offspring’s offspring, provided a bounty of happy family chaos. Even after Audrey died, Frank continued to be warmly embraced as the familial patriarch. His grandchildren by marriage forged bonds with him that couldn’t have been any stronger had they been grandchildren by blood.

Frank died in his sleep of natural causes peacefully and without struggle. He is survived by his beloved sisters, Connie (Joseph) and Dee (Tom), his brother Tony (Patricia Adriana), his nephews Gary (Nancy), Robert (Cindy) and Anthony (Millie), his niece Janet, his step-children Mark, Wayne (Linda), Michael (Leslie), Scott (Diane), Evan (Jodi), Diane (Patrick), his grandchildren Eboni, Taylor, Connie, Megan, Evan, Harry, Liam, Eva, Sam, Bess and Colette, and more than a half-dozen great grandchildren.

Frank would probably not want anyone to make a big fuss regarding his passing but might instead suggest making a big Italian meal and sharing a toast to a long and vibrant life that ultimately came to a peaceful ending.