Salvatore Reale

Salvatore “Sal” J. Reale, age 87, of Cedar Crest Village in Pompton Plains, formerly of Wayne, passed Monday, June 15, 2020.

He was born in Grammichele, Sicily, Italy and came to the United States when he was just nine months old.  The family settled into life in The Bronx, New York and graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in The Bronx with the Class of 1951.

After high school Sal enlisted in the United States Army where he served for two years during the Korean Conflict. Upon being honorably discharged Sal attended Manhattan College in New York City where he received his degree in Civil Engineering.  Sal worked for forty-five years at the Foster Wheeler Corporation and lived through several location changes before retiring from the Clinton facility in 1997.

Sal met the love of his life Rita Casatelli while at a dance at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City.  He offered to drive Rita home to her house at 14 Riverview Avenue in Cliffside Park, NJ.  Rita accepted but told him he had to drive the two friends she came with home as well.  Sal agreed and upon making it to Rita’s house she invited him in for coffee with her parents.  Rita had given Sal her home number so they could meet up again, however, she confided in her mother that she had given Sal a fake phone number as she wasn’t quite sure about him.  Her mom said he seemed like a nice guy and that she should have given him the right phone number.  Rita called the fake number she had given Sal and asked the girl at the other end of the line to give him her real phone number when and if he called.  Well Sal called the wrong number, then called Rita at the right number and said: “don’t you realize I drove you home and know where you live?”  They eventually fell in love.  Sal arrived to take Rita out one evening and said “hey – look…that’s your ring” as he had placed the engagement ring on a table in the house. They married on May 21, 1960 at Church of the Epiphany in Cliffside Park with the wedding reception in New York City and honeymooned in Puerto Rico. Rita and Sal lived in an apartment on Anderson Avenue in Cliffside Park when they first married and later moved into the second floor of a two family home Rita’s sister Virginia and her husband Andy had purchased. When Rita and Sal purchased a home on Raymar Lane in Wayne, Rita’s sister soon followed and bought the house next door for over 50 years.  Just a short time ago Rita and Sal moved into Cedar Crest Village in Pompton Plains and celebrated sixty years of marriage last month.

Sal will be lovingly remembered as a quiet, reserved person who enjoyed golfing, swimming at the Lincoln Park Swim Club and later swimming with friends he met at the Wayne Township Pool.  His New York roots instilled a loyalty to the New York Yankees and the New York Jets where for many years he held season tickets and enjoyed taking his daughters to the games.

Rita and Sal’s marriage was blessed with two children Lauren Fuentes and her husband Nelson of Fairfield and Joanne Jaworski and her husband Frederick of Waxhaw, North Carolina; they have also been blessed with three grandchildren: Christopher Fuentes and his wife Kelly, Denean Fuentes, and Lara Jaworski.

In lieu of flowers those inclined to make a memorial donation are asked to consider St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital.