John Stinziano

John A. Stinziano, age 76, of Wayne, passed away peacefully on Thursday, November 29, 2018 while in the loving presence of his family.

Born and raised in Jersey City, John was the eighth of his parents John and Rose Stinziano’s nine children. He was a Class of 1960 graduate of Jersey City’s Ferris High School. After high school John took a job with Ryerson Steel in Jersey City. For the next ten years he worked there faithfully by day while attending classes at St. Peters College at night in pursuit of his real dream – teaching U.S. History at the high school level. After earning his Bachelor’s degree in education in 1974, John’s dream was realized when he accepted a position with Passaic County Technical Institute in Wayne as their history teacher. Over the course of his twenty-five-plus year career at the school, John enjoyed the respect of his countless students and faculty alike. Throughout his teaching career until retirement in 2003, John always remained a student of history himself and consequently, his enthusiasm for what he taught was contagious to his students. Of course, they also loved him because he was more interested in sharing his love of history than testing them on the subject. John’s generosity toward the students went beyond a typical school day as he was always willing to help them with their studies after class, but his genuine care for them went even further as he also took a keen interest in their overall welfare frequently offering them food and clothing when needed.

John was a truly avid sport lover. He played baseball in high school himself and, being a huge New York Yankees fan, he loved to quip that one day he would be playing center field at Yankee Stadium. While that dream was never realized he had plenty of fun settling for family whiffle ball tournaments and he also played a lot of tennis. He loved going to watch the Yankees play and he was always organizing school faculty trips to the stadium. When John’s nephew Joe was a student at PCTI, the two of them arranged the first student against faculty baseball game. Joe was proud that the students won and John turned the students-faculty baseball game into an annual tradition for many more years to come. Next to baseball, John’s favorite sport was football. He was a Giants fan but his knowledge of the league was widespread. In fact, he even was giving his niece Laura advice for her fantasy football team a week before his passing. It turned out to be good advice as the players he told her to play did great and she won the game!

John was an extremely organized man. He was also a big mail order shopper who loved to purchase things out of catalogs. His brother Dennis liked to joke that if John had a computer and the ability to purchase items online, he’d be broke and he’d have a house full of junk. He was a salesman’s delight! John loved to collect World War II memorabilia, model cars, and sports memorabilia so those that peddled such things probably considered John a best friend. In his younger years he was a bit of a painter too. His family liked to poke a little bit of fun at him for a paint-by-number painting of the Last Supper that he did as a young man. He also painted a 3-D model of Yankee great Babe Ruth.

As much as he loved to buy things for himself, you would never find a more generous man than John. His generosity to his students was only the tip of the iceberg as John was a regular contributor to countless charities both religious and philanthropic. Surely his benevolent nature was instilled in him already as a young man when he was a member of the Knights of Columbus in Jersey City.

John always held God close to his heart. A very devout believer in God, he always wore his St. Anthony medal close to his heart. He was a delight to know. He loved being part of a big Italian family and he surely was cherished by his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews alike. He was also beloved by many friends and former students that he had the privilege of getting to know throughout the course of his life.  

John is survived by his dear siblings: Jeanette and husband Gabriel Quarterbosh of Little Falls, Joseph and wife Ellen Stinziano of Oak Park, Illinois, and Dennis and wife Patricia Stinziano of Hollywood, Florida; and numerous dear nieces and nephews, great nieces and great nephews, and cousins. He was predeceased by his loving parents: John and Rose Stinziano; and four dear sisters and one dear brother: Theresa Sucato, Anna Kachnowski Rosemary Falcone, Dominick Stinziano, and Josephine Lombardi.

In lieu of flowers, those planning an expression of sympathy in John’s name are asked to consider either Wounded Warrior Project  PO Box 758517  Topeka, KS  66675 (www.WoundedWarriorProject.org), or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,  Memorial Processing   501 St. Jude Place Memphis, TN 38105-9959 (www.stjude.org).