Vincent Anthony Amatulli

What a Wonderful Life -

On Wednesday, September 30th, our family lost its eldest member at 106 years of age. Vincent Anthony “Jim” Amatulli passed away just two months shy of his 107th birthday.

Jim was born in 1913 in the back of his immigrant parents grocery store just south of 59th St and 5th Ave. in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. This was before WWI mind you, and there were still horse and wagons on the streets. He used to say he was just a country boy from Brooklyn. The Model T Ford had only been in production for a few years. At that time, it was not even possible to place a phone call from New York to California as no transcontinental telephone line existed and the first radio broadcasts were still a few years away.

He put himself through night school at Brooklyn Polytechnic during the Great Depression to become an engineer. It took him ten years, reading and studying on the subways. About that time, he met and married Henrietta "Rita" Valente, the love of his life. After graduating he helped in the war effort by designing air systems for naval vessels and was awarded several patents. When the war was over, he moved into vertical transportation becoming an Elevator engineer, a business he used to say

that had its ups and downs. He rose to the highest levels of the business, building the one thing that truly made Skyscrapers possible in the Skyscraper capital of the world. He quite literally helped write the book on modern elevator engineering, becoming President of a major NY maintenance and modernization elevator company, contributing greatly to the codes, understanding and innovating through the 1950's, 60's and 70's. Mind you he was not all business. He and Rita used to like to entertain as well, and although they never smoked and did not drink when they were young there were definitely a few Whiskey Sours mixed over the decades after the war. He was also an athlete and active member of the New York Athletic Club. His passion for sports, especially baseball is well known amongst family. I am sure the Brooklyn Dodgers were well aware of his disapproval on their departure, but since he spent most of his retirement years in Atlanta, he was really a die-hard Braves fan in the end. That was a long retirement after all.

In one lifetime he saw the rise of technologies that no one could have imagined, from horse and buggy, to planes, to jets, through the sound barrier and on to men flying to the moon. He saw the world of engineering and knowledge change from slide rule, protractor and lookup tables to nearly all the knowledge of mankind in the palm of your hand. He lived through communication revolutions several times over; broadcast radio, television, two-way radio, cable, cellphone, dial-up internet, broadband, wireless and more. All the while he and Rita raised 4 truly kind, loving, and accomplished children.

Quite a life - a truly inspirational American story, born back behind the vegetables in a Brooklyn grocery store, to working in the clouds on some of the great structures man has ever built. He survived the Spanish Flu at age 4 ½, Scarlet Fever, and most recently avoided catching the China Coronavirus.

On October 4th, he and his wife celebrated an incredibly special day; they were together again for their 78th wedding anniversary.

He was preceded in death by his parents Phillip and Marie, siblings Mary, John, Fred, Anna, Angelo, Alice, and Santa, loving wife Rita, in-laws Jeramiah and Anna Valente, and great-grandson Garrett.

He is survived by his children Marianne (Gerald) Glover, Richard (Mary) Amatulli, Donna Jean (Jack) Conklin and Vinny (Diane) Amatulli, 10 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

Thanks for everything Father, Father-in-law, Grandpa & Great Grandfather. Godspeed, Vincent "Jim" Amatulli November 24, 1913 - September 30, 2020

In lieu of flowers, donations in Vincent Amatulli’s name can be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital