Theodore Colangelo, 90, director of the Defense Mapping Agency distribution center
Hoodoo
Theodore Colangelo, 90, defense-mapping official
By Claudia Vargas
Inquirer Staff Writer
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/obituaries/20100522_Theodore_Colangelo__90__defense-mapping_official.html
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Theodore Colangelo, 90, of Cinnaminson, a sailor during World War II who
went on to be director of the Defense Mapping Agency distribution center
in Philadelphia, died of prostate cancer and multiple system atrophy
Monday, May 17, at the Masonic Home of New Jersey.
When Mr. Colangelo was transferred from a Defense Mapping Agency office
in New York state to the Philadelphia distribution center in 1959, he
was a supply clerk. By the mid-1970s, he had risen to director, managing
more than 120 employees, said former colleague Gerald Bonner of Cinnaminson.
Mr. Colangelo was known as a firm leader whom employees respected for
his openness to new ideas, such as having an evaluation panel for
promotions. But his biggest accomplishment was coordinating the military
branches working within the distribution center.
When Mr. Colangelo first arrived, Bonner said, the Air Force and Navy
foremen "were all trying to operate in their own ways."
Bonner, who was hired in 1975 as the personnel officer, found himself
dealing with minor issues. Mr. Colangelo reorganized the joint operation
to flow smoothly, he said.
"It was humming. I got bored," he said, adding that he left in 1980.
Mr. Colangelo retired in the early 1990s after 45 years of working with
military mapping systems and distribution.
Mr. Colangelo had come to the United States as a 10-year-old from his
native city of Pietragalla, Italy, with his seven siblings and widower
father. Arriving in 1930, Mr. Colangelo and his family settled in
Schenectady, N.Y.
When he was 16, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and a year
later the Navy, where he was a seaman aboard the Erie.
After serving for three years, he returned to Schenectady. But a year
later, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and he rushed back to the Navy, his
daughter Eileen DiLullo said.
As a machinist mate on the Samuel N. Moore, Mr. Colangelo, during at
least one typhoon, worked frantically to keep the destroyer's engines
running, his daughter said.
Shortly before being discharged in 1947, Mr. Colangelo was diagnosed
with Crohn's disease. While recovering at the VA Medical Center in
Brooklyn, he fell in love with Dorothy Smelz, a social worker assigned
to him. Six months later, they married.
Mr. Colangelo started working for the Defense Mapping Agency in 1948.
When Mr. Colangelo was transferred to Philadelphia in 1959, he wanted a
single-family home, so he settled in Cinnaminson, where he lived in the
same house until he died.
He aimed to always be home by 5 p.m. to be with his family, his daughter
said. But Mr. Colangelo sometimes had to work 20-hour days - and that's
when Dorothy Colangelo knew something unusual was going on in the world.
In the days leading up to President John F. Kennedy's public
announcement of the Cuban missile crisis, Mr. Colangelo had been holed
up in the distribution center for many hours, his daughter said.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by a son, Daniel; daughters
Susan D. Grant and Mary Ann McWilliams; four grandchildren; and a
sister. His wife died in 1996.
A funeral was held Friday, May 21, at Snover/Givnish Funeral Home,
Cinnaminson. Interment was at Lakeview Memorial Park, Cinnaminson.
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