Silvie M. Origoni

Silvie M. Origoni of River Vale (NJ) passed away on June 13, 2025. He was 100 years old. Silvie was predeceased by his wife of 66 years, Virginiann, his parents Silvie C. and Lucy, brother Victor, and sister-in-law Regina. He is survived by his 3 children: son Kevin, and his wife Joanne, and their 3 children, Kevin Michael (fiancée Sedona Marie), Joseph (spouse Ryan), and Marisa (spouse Billy); son Michael, and his wife Maureen, and their 3 children, Caitlin (spouse Allan), Melissa (spouse Joe), and Michael Thomas (spouse Samantha); and daughter Andrea. Silvie is also survived by 3 great-grandchildren, James, Liam, and Will. He is also survived by his many nieces, nephews and cousins from the Pascarella, Augenti and the D’Anci families.

Silvie was born and raised in Emerson (NJ). He enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he turned 18, and was accepted into the Navy’s V-5 program to train to become an aviation cadet. He would attend college at Colgate, NY where he performed his first solo flight. He transferred to Tennessee and learned to fly the Stearman biplane, then was transferred to gunnery and aviator school at UNC in Chapel Hill. He passed his aviator grade and first went to Saufley Field in Fl., then onto Pensacola, FL to train with SNJ trainers and the Douglas SBD dive bomber. He would get his wings and Lt. JG rank in 1945.

He loved flying, enjoyed airplane books, air shows, and WW-II movies, and even before his death could still identify any military plane of the WW-II era.

When WW-II ended, Silvie attended Brooklyn Polytechnical College (now NYU Tandon School of Engineering) and received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. After college, he worked for General Electric, and later at Bendix, where he met his future wife, Virginiann, who was pursuing her doctoral degree in chemical engineering at Columbia University. They settled down in River Vale, where they would raise their children and live for the rest of their lives. Silvie then worked as an electrical, defense and aerospace engineer for almost forty years at Singer-Kearfott, General Precision, Plessey and G.E. Marconi. He had patents to his name as early as 1954. He would assist designing and testing guidance systems for programs like the Minuteman, Poseidon, Polaris missile systems, Gemini, Mercury and Apollo systems. His last project as Manager of Test Equipment was developing test equipment to produce the specified accuracy criteria for the gunnery system of the Army’s new M1 Abrams tank.

Silvie was an avid sportsman and liked baseball, golfing, flyfishing, swimming, English Setter’s and upland hunting. He volunteered his time helping River Vale’s Boy Scout troops and coaching the town’s baseball and softball teams for his 3 children. He taught his children in these sports and was thrilled many years later when his grandchildren would also enjoy some of these same sports. As a grandfather, he was generous with his time and attended hundreds of his grandchildren’s sporting events and other school activities, including baseball, football, basketball, track, and soccer games, bowling and swimming tournaments, karate black belt ceremonies, ballet and Irish dance recitals, plays, dozens of graduations, and many summer vacations to Long Beach Island.

Silvie was honest and polite, quiet, never crass, humble, and always a gentleman. He was intelligent, resourceful, and talented; he could fix or build many things (e.g., appliances; cars; the wooden pews for his local church) and had a workshop with hundreds of parts and tools for his projects. If he didn’t have what he needed, he would sometimes build or make it himself. Despite his many talents, Silvie was a humble man and was never one to brag about his talents or accomplishments. However, he would gladly pass on his knowledge and teach others how to do things.

Above all, Silvie was generous and devoted husband of 66 years to his wife, Virginia, a dedicated and often self-sacrificing father and family provider, a good father-in-law, and a good grandfather.

A famous person was once asked if he “would like to be remembered for doing something great, like his father before him.” He replied that many people are often called “great” for some grand political or cultural achievement, but they can sometimes be very flawed personally. Instead, he said, he “would rather be remembered for being a good man.” Hopefully, Silvie will be remembered for being a good man.

A viewing will begin at 8:30 AM on Wednesday, June 18, at Becker Funeral Home (Westwood, NJ), followed by a funeral mass at 10:00 AM at Our Lady of Victories R.C. Church (Harrington Park, NJ), with interment to follow at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery (Hackensack, NJ).