Mary Thesesa Napolitano (nee Stagnitta), age 96, a long-time resident of Woodcliff Lake, NJ, passed away surrounded by her family on Thursday January 6, 2022. Mary, always proud of her Brooklyn roots, was the youngest of nine children born to Italian immigrants. A graduate of St. Joseph’s College, she was the only member of her family to receive a college education, Mary met and married Anthony E. Napolitano in 1949 and moved to Woodcliff Lake in 1960 to raise their family. Her husband Anthony, a prominent politician in Woodcliff Lake, predeceased her in 1979. Loving mother to Anthony Napolitano Jr. of Florida, Richard Napolitano and his wife Joyce of Paramus NJ, Rosemary DeCotis and her husband Anthony of Florida, Thomas Napolitano who predeceased her in 2020 and his wife Carol, Christine Dattoli and her husband Albert of Woodcliff Lake, and Barbara Gibbons and her husband Geoffrey of Park Ridge, NJ. She was the adored grandmother to sixteen grandchildren and eighteen great grandchildren who lovingly called her Nona.
Mary, owner and director of Am-Tree Developmental Nursery School, Montvale, which she established in 1982, continued to work up until her passing. Mary, a pioneer in the field of early childhood education in the State of New Jersey, established one of the first licensed programs in the state, initially providing early childhood education for infants and toddlers and later expanding to include children up to five years of age. Her dedication to children for the past forty years gained her the admiration of the countless families and children that she provided childcare for as well as her peers in the field and many early childhood education agencies within Bergen County and the State of New Jersey. Recognizing Mary’s dedication and commitment to children and advocacy for other women in the field, the County of Bergen, Department of Human Services, Office for Children Advisory Board had selected Mary the inaugural recipient of the Mary T. Napolitano Women in Childcare Empowerment Award which was to be presented to Mary on April 23rd at the 2022 Office for Children Annual Childcare Conference.
A funeral mass will be held on Saturday January 29, 2022 at 10:30am at Our Lady Mother of the Church, 209 Woodcliff Lake, NJ. Interment will follow at Ascension Cemetery 650 Saddle River Road, Airmont, NY.
The family requests in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Bergen County Summer Campership Fund, an organization that our mother was involved in forming during her years of service with the Bergen County Advisory Board for the Education of Young Children. Donations can be made at https://www.bergenvolunteers.org/donate-today. In the designation box please select “Campership donation” and in the memo note “In Memory of Mary Napolitano”.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18