Frank Riccardella

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Lifelong New Brighton resident Frank “Sparky” Riccardella, 91, affectionately known as the “mayor” of his neighborhood, died Tuesday in Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center, in Castleton Corners, after a short stay.

As a young man, he played football with the New Brighton Elys, a neighborhood team.

Mr. Riccardella was drafted into the U.S. Amy in 1943, during World War II. He served with the 472nd Quartermaster Truck Regiment, stationed in the China-Burma-India Theater of operations for three years. A unit cook, he attained the rank of corporal.

He and Carmela Murante met at a San Bernadino Society party and fell in love. The two, born a day apart, would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary next month.

Mr. Riccardella began working for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1939. He then worked for Staten Island Rapid Transit, now the Staten Island Railway. He began as a trackman and retired after more than 40 years of service as a third-rail foreman in the mid-1980s.

He was often seen walking his beloved dog, Ginger, or driving his family around in a lime-green Buick LeSabre. He walked down to Jersey Street every day to play the lottery, even into his 90s, with another neighborhood fixture known as “Dave the Shoemaker.”

Mr. Riccardella was handy and always ready to help neighbors solve their problems. He kept a large garden, growing tomatoes, peppers and herbs, and carefully tended his fig trees, which he wrapped in tar paper and blankets each winter to protect them from the cold. His homemade wine and tomato gravy were renowned, family said.

He also enjoyed traveling and taking trips to Atlantic City.

Mr. Riccardella was a former first vice commander and a lifetime member of the Granito-Smith Post, American Legion,

He was an active parishioner of Assumption R.C. Church in New Brighton, serving as an usher and a trustee, and was part of the senior center there.

Surviving, along with Carmela, his wife of 69 years, are his son, Frank Jr.; his daughters, Giovanna Murphy and Cristine Fumando; five grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

The funeral will be Saturday from the Casey Funeral Home, Castleton Corners, with a mass at 10:30 a.m. in Assumption Church. Burial will follow in St. Peter’s Cemetery, West Brighton.