Anthony J. Vaccari

Anthony J. Vaccari

AGE: 91 • Toms River

Anthony J. Vaccari, 91, passed on Friday, August 24, 2012. Anthony lived much of his life in his place of birth, the Tiffany Boulevard neighborhood of North Newark, NJ, then in Mountainside, NJ from 1971 to 1987. He moved to Toms River, NJ, where he had lived for 25 years. There, at the Silver Ridge Park North clubhouse, he enjoyed participating in many activities, including: the Men's Club, Bowling League, Golf League (serving as League Secretary), Bridge Club and Bocce Club. A graduate of Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, in Newark, NJ, Anthony trained as a dive bomber pilot in the US Navy during WWII. He was fortunate to have been assigned to his first carrier, the USS Roosevelt, on V-J day, the last day of the war. After the war Anthony learned the trade of metal spinning; working in silver early in his career at Fischer Silversmiths of Jersey City, NJ, and then, from 1950, with the jeweler Tiffany & Co., where he refined his craft, at their original factory in Newark, NJ. He worked from1954 to his retirement, becoming a master in his field, with C.B. Kaupp & Sons, of Maplewood, NJ. With Kaupp, he created specialty parts from precision design specifications for such unique projects as the Nautilus, America's first nuclear submarine, the Tokamak fusion reactor in Princeton, and NASA's Apollo Moon Program. Anthony was an avid gardener, maintaining a collection of heritage seeds for produce from tomatoes to salad greens. A self-taught man, Anthony dove into the computer age when he was well into his eighth decade. He developed a web page devoted to former Navy pilots. He kept league records for his golf club. He eventually culminated this new found skill by writing and publishing a book about the lost art of his profession, "The Compleat Spinner." Never one to sit around unoccupied, in 2007, at the age of 86, he enrolled in courses at the Ocean County Vocational and Technical School at Lakehurst Naval Station … not to learn anything new, but to use the institution's machine shop tools and resources in order to build a metal spinning lathe of his own design (Pictured here). He soon had his instructors, and each of his student colleagues, involved in the completion of this project.

Among his large, loving family, Anthony leaves his devoted wife of sixty-five years, Livia, and his sister, Norma Virginio of Orlando, FL. He is predeceased by another sister, Christine Sansone, of Hamilton Square, NJ. He leaves his sons Michael, Raymond, and David, and his daughter Maria McCoy. He also leaves eleven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, in whom he found the greatest pride and joy.

The family will receive relatives and friends on Monday, August 27, 2012, from 2 to 4PM, and 7 to 9PM at the Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals, 145 St. Catherine Blvd., Toms River, NJ. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 10:30 AM Tuesday, August 28, 2012, at St. Maximilian Kolbe R.C. Church, Berkeley Township, NJ. Burial will follow at the William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Arneytown, NJ. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.ryanfuneralhome.com.