George Poletti

George Poletti, of Cinnaminson, passed away at home with family at the age of 96.
George was born in New York City in 1928, to the late Domenico and Tersilla (nee Irsutti) Poletti. His mother immigrated from northern Italy and his father was a first-generation Italian who returned to fight for Italy as a young man in WWI. George grew up an only child in the post-Depression in an area of the upper East side of New York City known as East Harlem. East Harlem had a sub-neighborhood known as Italian Harlem housing recent immigrants from Italy. George would tell stories of his parents making wine in the basement of their apartment building when he was a child. East Harlem was a rough neighborhood to grow up in. As a child, he learned to survive the streets of New York by burying himself in books. He was fortunate to attend Stuyvesant high school and got a job at the New York Public Library. He loved spending his afternoons at the library working and reading. George, aka Curious George, had a voracious appetite for learning. He was always reading a book or two or five(!), everything from Shakespeare's sonnets to quantum physics textbooks (which he always brought with him, even on vacations!). After receiving his engineering degree from City College of New York, George moved to Long Island, NY, where he married Patricia Krauss and started a family. He later earned an MBA from Hofstra University. He spent his career as a quality assurance engineer and worked for Raytheon in Sudbury, MA and then GE which took him and his family to Cinnaminson in 1975, where he lived for the past 49 years.
In many ways, George's interests proved him to be something of a Renaissance man. He loved to dance and listen to music. He especially enjoyed listening to opera while making pizza from scratch on Saturday nights. He also enjoyed classical and jazz music and took up dancing classes at the local library when he retired. Perhaps George's favorite thing in life, though, was food. He loved to talk about foods from his childhood and extraordinary meals he had in different cities across the country traveling as a young man. Even into his 90's, he had his caregivers searching Philadelphia for specific Italian cookies and his favorite Italian rum cake. His house was filled with clocks that would sound various bells and ringtones on the hour, every hour. He also had a penchant for watches and rings and enjoyed wearing his collection.
George was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia (nee Krauss), and is survived by his children, Ronald D. (Kathy L.) Poletti, Mark J. (Kim) Poletti, and grandchildren, Julian and Simone Poletti.
A visitation for George will be held on Saturday, September 28th from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. followed by a Mass of Christian burial at 11:00 a.m., at the Sacred Heart church, on 4th & Linden Ave., Riverton, NJ. Interment will follow at Lakeview Memorial Park, Cinnaminson, NJ. Following the interment, there will be a celebration of life hosted by George's family at his home from 12:30pm-4pm.
Condolences may be shared with the family at www.weberfuneralhomeinc.com.
Donations can be made to Samaritan Hospice & Palliative Care of South Jersey (Mt Laurel, NJ https://www.samaritannj.org/giving/#1 or Burlington County Library System https://www.bcls.lib.nj.us/support-library/bcls-foundation