By Scott R. Axelrod
Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — New York’s Bravest has lost its oldest living retired member. Anthony Aquaro died at the age of 103, union officials announced Saturday.
The Rossville resident was born in Brooklyn on Feb. 27, 1921.
As a Navy veteran, he fought in World War II from 1942 to 1945 as a first-class boatswain’s mate on the USS Impulse and the USS Kingsmill. While home on leave, he married Gloria, the love of his life in 1944.
Upon his return from World War II, Aquaro became a jack of all trades to support his family. He worked in a paper bag factory, loaded freight in Secaucus, N.J., and took on countless other jobs.
In 1953, Aquaro would go on to be sworn in as a firefighter with the FDNY at the age of 31. He’d serve 26 years with Engine 269 on Union Street in Brooklyn.
Aquaro was working on Dec. 16, 1960, when a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 bound for Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport ) collided in midair with a TWA Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation descending toward LaGuardia Airport.
The Constellation crashed on Miller Field in New Dorp and the DC-8 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, killing all 128 aboard the two aircraft and six people on the ground.
Having first settled in New Dorp in 1965, the Aquaros became the parents of two. Later, they were grandparents of four and great-grandparents to eight.
“My greatest blessing is wealth,” Aquaro said. “Not the monetary kind, but the wealth that comes with being blessed with a beautiful and loving family of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.”
Asked about the secret to a successful marriage: “Never argue with each other,” Aquaro told the Advance/SILive.com during a birthday celebration last year.
“We met when Gloria was 14 and I was 16 and we were in high school, a time when you’d least expect Cupid’s arrow to strike and find its mark. It was love at first sight. I was on a baseball team, and we lost so many games. And when we won our first game, I was so excited, I asked: ‘Do I get a kiss? And she said I was fresh. In time, she made up for it and we began dating.’”
Aquaro, who died Friday, was remembered in a post to social media by the Uniformed Fire Officers Association as a firefighter who “left an indelible mark on the FDNY and all who knew him.”
A wake will be held Monday at Casey McCallum Rice Funeral Home in Great Kills from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
A funeral service will take place Tuesday at St. Clare’s church in Great Kills at 11:00, with interment to follow at Resurrection Cemetery in Pleasant Plains.
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