Beginning Years
Anthony Paul Pasquariello, my father, was born September 3, 1911 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Rosina and Andrea Pasquariello, were Italian immigrants and already had one daughter Amelia, born two years before. When Amelia was six, the family moved to a small town in West Hartland, Connecticut, which now included another sister, Felicia, and brother Paul.
My father ,Anthony Pasquariello, born 1911 in a class picture for his one room school house, Mill Street, West Hartland, Connecticut, circa 1920. He is first left, top row. His sisters are bottom row, left to right: Amelia, fourth, and Felicia, sixth in front.
Education
Anthony’s education began at Mill Street School, a small one-room schoolhouse, which accommodated all grade levels. From there, he went to The Gilbert School in nearby Winsted, graduating with honors, and on to Yale University on a full scholarship. He needed to get an exception for the scholarship requirements due to his faith, Roman Catholic, as the award was intended for Protestants.
The October 1929 stock market crash sent some of the wealthy students home from Yale since their families lost most of their wealth. Tony began his college years that fall, and as a scholarship student, waited tables. He received honors for his studies in electrical engineering. At the beginning of each school year, his parents bought him one suit which he wore every day to class. He would have loved to play football, but his mother, on the advice of the local doctor, vetoed it due to the risk of long-term injuries.
Career and Marriage
Prospects for jobs upon graduation in June of 1933 were dismal at best even for an Ivy League graduate. During the depression, there were few opportunities for employment. Lasting from 1929 until 1938, unemployment reached 25% in 1933 and remained high until preparation for World War II, which started in the late 1930s.
Anthony turned down an offer for an electrical engineering position in upper New York state, and instead accepted a job with a local construction company, Oneglia and Gervasini, in Torrington, Connecticut for $1.00 a week more. Most likely, he also selected this position to remain home to support his family since his younger brother Paul was now a student at Yale.
For the next several years, Tony worked with construction, learning the practical applications of an engineering degree. In 1938 a new assignment in Wingdale New York, Dutchess County led to a romance and eventual marriage in 1940 to my mother, Mary McCleary.
Lt. Commander A.P. Pasquariello, Naval Ammunition Depot, Crane, Indiana, 1941-1945
The Navy and World War II - Crane, Indiana
In 1940, The United States was preparing for war, and supplies for roads, buildings, and weaponry were needed to support troops around the world. To that end, a new Naval Ammunition Depot for production, testing, and storage of military weaponry was being built in 1941 in Crane, Indiana. On June 9 of the same year, Anthony enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve, reporting for his first assignment in Crane as a Lt. Commander.
The unanticipated attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, shook Americans to the core, as well as escalated their unified efforts to win World War II. The Crane Depot took on even more importance in these efforts.
In 1943, Tony was made an officer in charge of construction overseeing $58 million allotted for the new construction at the Depot. That $58 million translates into $872 million in 2020, underscoring the scope and scale of his role. During the four years he was there, he oversaw the completion of more than 2000 buildings, 150 miles of railroad, and approximately 300 miles of highway.
Captain Anthony Pasquariello, 1911-1981, USN Reserve, proud to be an American and part of the Seabees for 26 years.
Despite the enormous responsibility of this important position, my father was very happy. He loved the Navy, finding the protocol and lofty mission inspiring and fulfilling. My mother and he had two young girls, Rose Marie and Alice, and lived in comfortable Navy accommodations for officers and families.
As the war lingered on, Lt. Commander A.P. Pasquariello was dispatched on May 5, 1945 to Washington and then on to Davisville, Rhode Island for a construction assignment that would eventually take him outside of the continental United States. My father was excited about this new role, but his enthusiasm was curbed when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, effectively ending the war.
With the war coming to a close, so did Anthony’s active duty, and he was released October 23, 1946; however, he proudly remained in the Naval Reserve until 1968 when he retired as a Commissioned Warrant Officer. He loved the Navy and his years with the Construction Battalion, the Seabees, having many fond memories of his team and their accomplishments.
My father started his company, CESCO Steel, in our garage, 1947, Torrington, Connecticut.
Cesco Steel and the Flood of 1955
After the Davisville assignment was completed, my father was back in Connecticut planning his new business, which he started in the garage of our home on 240 Charles Street, Torrington, CT. My brother Tony was born in October of 1945 and I, Margaret (Peggy) followed 22 months later. Our family was complete now.
His new business, which grew incrementally through the years, moved from our yard to Riverside Avenue on the other side of town. Slowly it grew and steadily, as a distribution supply company for construction, equipment and supplies (welding, bolts nuts). It was truly a family business. My aunt, Alice Quinlan, helped secure one of the biggest suppliers in the nation, The Bethlehem Steel Company. My brother, sisters and I worked summers as well as my aunt Amelia who was the office manager.
The summer of August 1955 was a hot and muggy one and on August 19, the unthinkable happened. Two powerful hurricanes, a perfect storm, hit the Naugatuck Valley and effectively wrought havoc on surrounding towns including Torrington which received 14 inches of rain from Hurricane Diane, after Hurricane Connie dropped 4-6 inches the week before. When the Naugatuck River flooded its banks, water rushed through the town, destroying homes, businesses, roads, bridges and local utilities.
Tony received a phone call in the early hours of the morning and rushed to save what he could, boxes of bolts, supplies, but the river was quickly destroying everything in its path. Not spared, Cesco Steel was ravaged as steel and supplies, washed down the river, leaving large trailer trucks buried deep in the mud. It took many months for the town and my father’s business to slowly recover.
Family Life, Community, and the Challenging Sixties
My father was strict and a task master. He set high standards and wanted the best for his children. We had chores, which included the tending of a huge garden and a city lot behind our house. I still remember weeding, harvesting, and canning all kinds of vegetables. And I can still see him coming home from work and walking directly to the garden to water the plants. It was in those moments that he seemed the most calm and serene, almost meditative.
As we four children reached our teens, he set firm curfews and had great difficulty accepting the free spirit of the sixties, which questioned every rule and assumption of the former generation. The Vietnam War, the hippies, Woodstock, protests, college unrest, Bob Dylan, to name a few, were sticky subjects at the dinner table.
Tony was a leader and contributor to the community. He was a member of the advisory board for the local bank and chairman of the board of Directors for the Torrington Chapter of the Red Cross. He was active with the Boy Scouts and a regular communicant of our Church, St. Francis of Assisi.
Football and Family
My father was driven to succeed in his new company, leaving early each morning in workman’s clothes and returning at 6 p.m. for dinner with the family and then back to his office for paperwork. He allowed little time for relaxation with one exception: Yale football. He loved the game and the team and spent many Fall Saturdays in New Haven with family and friends.
On one Saturday in September 1981, he was in his office at his company completing work before getting ready for the afternoon game. He never got to that game, as he suffered a final heart attack there that morning. He passed away a few days later on September 23, at age 70.
Lessons
Tony, being the first-born male in his family born in the United States, assumed a leadership role early in his family and distinguished himself as the first child to graduate college, become a reserve Naval officer, and later a successful business owner, devoted husband, and father of four children.
His accomplishments did not come without challenges. During the span of his lifetime, he encountered prejudice, economic downturns, business disappointments, and personal challenges. Despite these obstacles, he found opportunities and moved forward optimistically.
Always confident, he was a fighter, embodying the motto of the Sea Bees, The Construction Battalion, whose motto was “The difficult we do now; the impossible takes a little longer.” He loved the Navy, Seabees with its “can do” positive attitude and mission.
Being a private person, he advised: “Give people information on the basis of what they need to know.” So, in many ways, we will never know his most interior, private thoughts. But this we can safely say: He was hardworking, responsible, and driven to follow rules, regulations, and protocol. Despite his loyalties, he remained independent in his thinking, as he would often say “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” He often would add that the only true page in the newspaper was the Sports Page, which stated the facts. This was much before “fake news” and today’s social media debacles.
His legacy is his unwavering belief in God, America, and family, manifested by hard work, loyalty, and honesty—balanced with a dose of healthy skepticism.