Barbara Ann Monguzzi

March 30, 1934 – August 9, 2022

Barbara Ann Monguzzi, age 88 of Cornwall, PA passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on August 9th, 2022. She was born in New York City on March 30th, 1934 to the late Henry and Elizabeth Riegler. She graduated from Ridgewood High School, in New Jersey in 1952 and later earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Education from William Paterson University in 1956. She was immensely proud of the fact that she was the first in her family to graduate from college. It was a busy time for her, as later that summer she married her high school sweetheart, Richard. They were happily married for 62 years.

She became a teacher and taught 3rd and 4th grade at Watsessing Elementary in Bloomfield, NJ and Stevenson Elementary in Fairfield, NJ. Mrs. Monguzzi was known for being firm but always led with empathy and expected nothing less than the best from her students. Her favorite subjects to teach were the Revolutionary War and New Jersey history.

Instilling a love of reading in her students was particularly important to her, as she was well known for having one of the largest classroom libraries in the school. She participated in three different school book clubs, and each one had a 15-book minimum to order. If a student only ordered one book, she would purchase the other fourteen and add them to her library, thereby ensuring that student got the book they desired, and the rest of the class had additional books to read. Over her 34 years of teaching, she impacted hundreds of students who passed through her doors.

After living in North Caldwell, New Jersey for 25 years, Barbara and her husband Richard retired to their lake house in Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania, where she was an active member of the Emerald Lakes community. She was the co-chair of the Architectural Review Committee in Emerald Lakes, where just like her teaching, nothing less than the best passed her review. She was also the founder of the Emerald Lakes Women’s Club because it was important to her that women joining the community felt welcomed and included.

Barbara was a lifelong miniature enthusiast, and after retirement in 1997, she and her husband turned it into a full-time hobby. Several of their dollhouse miniatures were recognized and awarded in national publications. They were also active members of the Small on Scale Miniature Club of Lehigh Valley. Their prized project was their beautiful dollhouse, which took them 10 years to complete. It was composed of three floors, thirteen impeccably furnished rooms, and included a working miniature electrical light system.

In 2007, she and her husband moved to Cornwall Manor, a retirement community in Cornwall, PA, where they continued building their miniatures. A teacher to the very end, she enjoyed tactfully correcting others' grammar and ensured her caregivers could pass her numerous geography quizzes.

Barbara was preceded in death by her loving husband Richard in 2018. She is survived by her older daughter Margaret Smith, husband Stephen, and granddaughters Sarah and Catherine Smith of Silver Spring, Maryland, and her younger daughter Melissa Gianetti, husband Christopher, and granddaughters Jennifer and Gina Gianetti of West Milford, New Jersey, as well as her beloved cat, Brandy.

Visitation for family and friends will be held at Zerr Chapel at Cornwall Manor in Cornwall, PA on Wednesday, August 17th at 10:30 AM, with funeral services following at 11:00 AM. Interment will be at 1:00 PM at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be offered in memory of her husband Richard to the Lustgarten Foundation to Cure Pancreatic Cancer at https://events.lustgarten.org/Monguzzi

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.rohlandfh.com for the Monguzzi family.