Angelo Rocco Vaccaro

Angelo Rocco Vaccaro was born in Buffalo, New York, on May 2, 1943. Raised in a close-knit Italian family, with his four grandparents immigrating to the United States in the early 1900s, Angelo carried a deep pride in his heritage and a lifelong appreciation for family, community, and service.

After graduating from Kenmore High School in Buffalo, where his lifelong love of baseball matured, Angelo attended Kentucky Wesleyan College for undergraduate education and played baseball for the KWC Panthers. It was back in Buffalo, NY at Buffalo State University, while earning his Master’s Degree, Angelo discovered his true calling: Exceptional Child Education. As a graduate student, he taught in the Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge Program (SEEK), an experience that sparked his lifelong commitment to educational opportunity and equity.

Following graduation, Angelo again found himself back in the Bluegrass State where he joined the Jefferson County Public School system in Louisville. Over the course of his career in Exceptional Education, he served as a residential school instructor, head teacher, team leader, staff specialist, and ultimately Coordinator of Exceptional Child Education for the Central Region of JCPS.

In 1990, Angelo became Executive Director of the Louisville Educational and Employment Partnership (LEEP), a pioneering public-private initiative dedicated to reducing school dropout rates and helping at-risk young people find pathways into the workforce. He later served in a leadership role at Career Resources, a citywide career center, before concluding his professional career as a consultant in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), collaborating with school districts throughout Kentucky and parts of South Carolina.

In each position he held, Angelo was guided by a simple but powerful belief: every child is gifted, and an educator’s highest calling is to help each child discover that gift. His professional life was devoted to supporting at-risk students, preventing school dropouts, strengthening parent support systems, and creating safer schools. More than a career, education was Angelo’s way of making a difference in the lives of others.

Outside of his professional life, Angelo’s passions included lake fishing, sports cars, golf, the Buffalo Bills, and oil painting. An avid traveler, he felt a particularly special connection to Italy, where he visited his grandfather’s ancestral village and embraced the connection to his heritage and his family’s roots.

During early retirement, Angelo continued his commitment to service through volunteer work with St. Matthews Area Ministries, first as a food bank volunteer and later as a member of its board. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2016, his desire to help others took on an even deeper and more personal meaning. Drawing from his own experience, Angelo dedicated himself to supporting cancer survivors as a peer navigator with Friend for Life Cancer Support Network and as a driver for the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program. Within these services he counseled bladder cancer survivors all around the United States and locally he provided rides to cancer survivors who otherwise might have struggled to get to their treatments.

Angelo’s life was defined by devotion to his family, dedication to his work, compassion for others, and a gentleness that left a lasting impression on everyone who knew him. His greatest gift, his superpower, was his unconditional love, expressed not simply in words but through his actions. Even faced with one health setback after another in his later years, Angelo met each challenge with remarkable courage, grace, and determination.

Angelo leaves behind more than memories. He leaves a legacy of love, service, compassion and an unwavering belief in the potential of others. The many lives he touched through his family, his students, his colleagues and his service to others, are a lasting testament to the kind of man he was.

Angelo was preceded in death by his parents, Rocky and Marie Vaccaro, and his sister, Grace Eberle Moore. His memory will be cherished and his legacy carried forward by his beloved wife of fifty-nine years, Del Marie Vaccaro; his brother, Anthony Vaccaro (Joanne), and sister, Roxanne Manning; his son, Nick Anthony Vaccaro (Shelley); his daughter, Gina Marie Vaccaro (Nick Clark); his grandchildren, Remington, Annalee, Jackson, and Charlie, as well as his extended family of cousins, nieces, nephews, and the Clark family, who welcomed Angelo as an honorary member of their family.

A gathering of family and friends will be held at St. Matthews United Methodist Church, 319 Browns Lane, Louisville, on Monday, September 28, from 10:00 am-1:00 pm with a memorial service beginning at 1:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made to either: St. Matthews Area Ministries- which serves individuals and families experiencing chronic or episodic economic hardship, or Blueprint 502, formerly known as YouthBuild Louisville, an organization providing education, career development, and leadership training for young people.