Bart DiPaola age 86 of Wayne passed away peacefully on Saturday April 28, 2018 while receiving the loving care of his family.

Bart was born in Paterson to Angelo and Ann DiPaola, one of five children. They lived in Paterson until Bart was about twelve or thirteen years old, when his family then moved to Haledon.  Bart attended Paterson Central High School and graduated with the class of 1949.  Not long after graduation, in 1951, Bart received the call to serve his country in the United States Army. He served honorably in the US Army from 1951 to 1952.  Subsequent to his service to the country, Bart was accepted and attended Montclair State College where he earned his Bachelor’s and later in the evenings his Master’s Degree, and continued his studies while teaching and was just shy of his Doctorate.

Following his undergraduate college education, Bart’s first position as a teacher was for his alma mater, Paterson Central High School.  There he taught Business Classes and Physical Education.  He was also an Assistant Football Coach alongside the famous Aubry Lewis, a football star and track athlete who was  captain of the  Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  He worked there for about two years, then moved to  the newly constructed Manchester Regional High School in Haledon, Bart secured a teacher’s position and again taught Business and Physical Education.  He was  the school’s first Football Coach and later it's Athletic Director.  While at Manchester he was also involved in local politics in Haledon where he was President of the Board of Trustees of the Haledon Library Board as well as a member and President of the Haledon Board of Education.   He spent the next six years at Manchester until he earned a post at the newly constructed Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, NJ as Vice Principal for one year, and eventually Principal for 26 years.  Bart would hold this position for the rest of career in education, until his retirement in 1994.  Pascack Hills High School would become Bart’s true passion other than the love for his family.  Bart was respected and admired by the Pascack Valley Regional Board of Education and Pascack Hills High School.  In his honor, Pascack Hills High named their athletic field, “Bart DiPaola Field.”  This was something that, throughout their lives, made Bart and his family very proud.

While attending Montclair State College, he was Captain of the School’s Football team.  At the games, it was never very hard for anyone to notice the School’s Home Coming Queen, an attractive young lady by the name  Joann Magrino.    Their first date was to a Montclair State College Basketball game and then onto White Castle for a hamburger.   Bart and Joann dated for about a year and a half, and as fate would have it they fell in love and were married on August 2, 1958 and honeymooned at Mount Airy Lodge in the Poconos.  After getting married, Bart and Joann first settled in Haledon where they lived for twenty years and raised their two children.  In 1977, they moved to Wayne and would call it their home for the rest of their lives together.  Bart and Joann cherished almost sixty years of loving and loyal marriage together.

Bart, as a former Physical Education teacher, was obviously an avid sports fan, and was totally dedicated to his New York Giants, and the New York Yankees attending games with his children and grandchildren.  He had a special relationship with his older sister Catherine Gravino so much so that  he and his family owned a house with his sister Catherine's family in Lavallette at the Jersey Shore and would spend their summers together there.    Bart was a devoted father, a disciplinarian to his children, but when it came to his grandchildren, he spoiled them rotten.  He was smart, demanding and could also be very charming.   Bart was a devoted individual to the students of all the schools he taught at but in particular those of Pascack Hills HS, he touched the lives of countless people and will be missed by everyone that knew him.

Bart is survived by his wife Joann (nee Magrino) of Wayne, one daughter, Ann Mary O’Rourke and her husband John of Wayne, one son John DiPaola and his wife Dawn of Wayne, two sisters Catherine Gravino of Haledon, and Antoinette Citro of Florida, and five grandchildren; John Bart O’Rourke, Jeffery Bart DiPaola, Kristen Ann DiPaola, Joanna O’Rourke, and Stephen Robert DiPaola.  He was predeceased by his brother Louis DiPaola and Louis's twin who died as a baby.