Joyce Maniscalco Maiellano

Beloved mother, adored nonna, biologist, educator - the beautiful, indomitable and inimitable Joyce Maniscalco passed from this earth in her home on January 5, 2025, surrounded by her photos, her books, the music of her great and true love, Frank Sinatra, and those that loved her beyond measure. She died as she lived - with unyielding tenacity, Sicilian steel-willed determination and bottomless bravery. She was 92.

Her legacy of love, infectious laughter, joie de vivre, humanity, fortitude of character, spunk, worldly wit, and generosity of heart will live on in all those who had the great fortune to have been loved by her.

Born and raised in Staten Island, NY, she was the eldest daughter of Bridget (Serio) and Leonard. The granddaughter of Sicilian immigrants from Cefalu’, Palermo, Joyce grew up on Oakland Avenue in West Brighton in a home built by her grandfather, Giuseppe Serio. Years later, she moved to Randall Manor living on Penbroke Avenue with her parents and sisters.

Joyce graduated valedictorian of her class from St. John’s Villa high school, and went on to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from St. John’s University and a Master of Science in Education from the City University of New York, at a time when women were discouraged from pursuing degrees or careers. She walked through life with a fortitude of character and an unwavering sense of self that made her many accomplishments - in the days in which she achieved them - seem effortless.

She entered the world of science when the field was entirely male dominated. But true to her steel-willed nature, that did not stop her. Not much did. She saw obstacles only as a minor challenge. There was nothing she could not tackle and accomplish. If anyone needed something done, they knew to ask Joyce.

Joyce attended the Rockefeller Institute in Manhattan, and conducted cancer research at Sloan Kettering Institute. She eventually went on to teach, her true calling in life, teaching biology at McKee, New Dorp and Susan Wagner high school on Staten Island throughout her career, and at the famous Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii where she resided in the 1960s. She was an adjunct lecturer at St. John’s University, her alma mater, and a professor of biology, anatomy and nursing at the City University of New York. She was a woman’s woman - instilling confidence in so many young women she encountered, and encouraging all her female students to pursue careers in science giving away countless anatomy and biology books over the years.

She stood, as she would say when asked her height, at “5 ft. nothing,” - but to paraphrase Shakespeare - “though she was but little, she was fierce,” - a force to be reckoned with. She was fearless, and full of life. “Stromboli” was just one of the nicknames given to her by her fellow educators (after the volcano in her adored island of Sicily.) Her students affectionately referred to her as “Mighty Mouse.” Her radiant smile and sense of humor was always present in whatever she did and wherever she went, including her classroom, where she hung a skeleton telling her students that the skeleton was a former student who had failed biology. She got to know all of her students personally, often staying late after class helping them with assignments. Her car, a white Cadillac that she propped herself up in with two hot pink velvet pillows, was always the last to remain in the school parking lot.

An educator who illuminated the minds of her countless students over the years, Joyce loved science, Sicily and Sinatra, relished travel and possessed an ageless sense of adventure and lust for life. She dressed for every occasion. Whenever she heard music, she would get up to dance, grabbing whomever was next to her. Her insatiable thirst for knowledge and learning never ceased. There was not a book that she did not open. At 88, when a close friend asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she replied, “a current world globe.” She was endlessly curious about all things, and intensely interested in people from all backgrounds, all cultures and all walks of life - treating everyone in the same manner. She would strike up a conversation with anyone whom she came across, peppering them with a million questions about their lives. If you had the fortune to meet Joyce, you became family immediately. She welcomed everyone into her home and heart, and gave abundantly and without reservation.

A product of the Depression-era, she creatively recycled anything that passed through her hands. She possessed an old-world work ethic, unwavering loyalty, dignity and integrity. She did not appease or ever waver from her principles and values and had the bravery to make them known when she needed to. She loved life completely and lived it intensely, out loud, and to the fullest, indeed traveling down each and every highway doing it all her way.

Her most precious of gifts, a delicious granddaughter, came to her late in life, but Joyce was blessed with bottomless energy and the Sicilian stamina, vitality and agility that enabled her to experience the immense joy of being a “nonna” in her twilight years.

She is survived by her daughter, the Honorable Gioia Marisa Maiellano, her precious granddaughter, Aurelia Valentina, the many she loved and to whom she was like a second mother, and all those whose lives will be forever changed for the better for having known her.