United States High School Yearbooks by County
Jewell Stuckert, former director of library
The Katonah Village Library trustees and staff would like to honor the life and dedication to the community of Jewell Stuckert. She died on Friday, Sept. 22.
Mrs. Stuckert served as the director of the Katonah Village Library from 1988 until June 14, 1997. In all, she worked for the library for 38 years. She later earned a degree in library science with honors from the Columbia University School of Library Services.
Mrs. Stuckert was a member of Blue Mountain Housing Development Corp. from January 1984 to January 1997. Blue Mountain was created by the Bedford Town Board to produce governmentally assisted housing. Mrs. Stuckert was instrumental in the renovation of the Doyle House on North Katonah Avenue and setting up the lottery for occupants.
In the nearly four decades she worked at the library, she provided a blend of excellent leadership skills, including concern for patrons. She was passionate about extending and maintaining the quality and comprehensive library collection.
Mrs. Stuckert created the first children's room library space. She worked as a children's librarian, a reference librarian and a young adult librarian prior to serving as director. Mrs. Stuckert was instrumental in supplying the leadership and vision for the library's major expansion in 1990.
A private memorial service will be held. The family is asking that memorial donations be made to the Katonah Village Library.
Pat W. Mollo, 74, architectural woodworker
Pat W. Mollo of South Salem died on Thursday, Dec. 21. He was 74 years old.
Born Feb. 12, 1932, in Stamford, Conn., he was the son of the late Benjamin and Antoinette D'Piro Mollo.
Mr. Mollo was a self-employed architectural woodworker. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served in the Korean War.
He is survived by his wife, Eleanor Signore Mollo of South Salem; two sons, Ben Mollo and his wife, Marie, of Fairfield, Conn., and Clifford Mollo of Riverside, Conn.; a daughter-in-law, Rosemarie Mollo of Stamford; and two daughters, Marianna Lombardo and her husband, Bill, of Stamford and Annette Vitti and her husband, Dan Greco, of Stamford. Six grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and one step-great-grandchild also survive.
In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by a sister.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 29, at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, 40 Maple St., New Canaan, Conn.
Entombment will follow at Willowbrook cemetery in Westport, Conn. There will be no calling hours.
Memorial contributions may be made in Mr. Mollo's name to St. Mary Roman Catholic Church Restoration Fund, 566 Elm St., Stamford, CT 06902.
Arrangements are being handled by the Nicholas F. Cognetta Funeral Home & Crematory, 104 Myrtle Ave., Stamford, CT 06902, www.cognetta.com.
Gregg A. Percoco, 44, former resident
Gregg Anthony Percoco died at his home in Swannanoa, N.C., on Dec. 9. He was 44 years old.
Mr. Percoco was the son of Gerard Percoco and Marilyn DiLieto Percoco of South Salem.
Mr. Percoco was the owner of Black Mountain Ford and Chevrolet in Swannanoa. He was a den leader for the Boy Scouts in Montreat and a parishioner of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church. Also, he was a member of the Knights of Columbus, Council 13016.
In addition to his parents, he is survived by his wife, Darlene Carne Percoco; three sons, Jason, of Tampa, Fla., and Aaron and Joseph, both of Swannanoa; brothers James of Springfield, Va., Stephen of Winthrop, Mass., and Anthony Percoco of South Salem; and sisters Gerilyn Staley of Landenburg, Pa., and Marilyn Cleary of Severn, Md. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews who adored him, his family said.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, Jan. 13, at 10 a.m. in St. Mary of the Assumption R.C. Church, Katonah.
Memorial donations may be made to the Education Trust Fund of Aaron and Joey Percoco, c/o First Citizen Bank, P.O. Box 11330, Black Mountain, NC 28711.
Philip J. Davis, 71, of South Salem, affirmative action proponent
Philip J. Davis of South Salem died Nov. 29 at Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Conn. He had complications from liver cancer. He was 71.
From 1970 to 1975, Mr. Davis worked in the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance, which oversees affirmative action policy. He was director of the office from 1973 to 1975.
After settling in the New York area, he became a corporate officer in charge of affirmative action programs at the conglomerate Norton Simon Inc. and cosmetics company Avon Products Inc. By the late 1980s, he moved into lobbying work exclusively for Kraft General Foods Corp., a division of the Philip Morris Companies, and retired in 1999 as vice president of government relations for the Philip Morris Companies-Altria Group Inc.
In recent years, he ran a consulting business to represent corporations on issues pending before governors.
Mr. Davis was a native of Elmira, and a 1960 political science graduate of Howard University. He was among the first black interns in the U.S. House of Representatives and, after college, spent eight years as a legislative assistant for Rep. Howard W. Robison.
Mr. Davis was executive director of the human relations commission for Chemung County before joining the Labor Department. He also was a former member of the Salvation Army's national advisory board.
Survivors include his wife of 44 years, Gwen Snow Davis; three children, Andrea Davis Pinkney and Lynne Davis, both of Brooklyn, and Philip J. Davis Jr. of Stamford, Conn.; four brothers; a sister; and two grandchildren.
Josiah J. Simpson, 85, of South Salem
Josiah James 'Jim' Linsly Simpson, a 49-year resident of South Salem, died Tuesday, Nov. 28, at his home in South Salem. He was 85.
Mr. Simpson is survived by Norma Fontaine Simpson, his wife of 60 years, and three sons: Josh and his wife, Cady Coleman, of Shelburne Falls, Mass., Randolph of Northford, Conn., and Eliakim of South Salem. Also surviving Mr. Simpson are five grandchildren: Ashley, Josiah, Tyler, Matthew and Jamey.
Mr. Simpson was born Dec. 18, 1920, in Rochester. He was the son of the late Charles and Eunice Simpson.
He graduated from Williston Academy in 1943 and from Yale University in 1948, with a bachelor's of arts in economics. In 1974, he retired from the United Nuclear Corporation in Elmsford where he was the government contracts administrator.
Mr. Simpson was described by his family as a forthright man, strong in his convictions and not afraid to march to the beat of his own drum. He was a natural problem solver and loved being involved in projects of many sorts, both practical and creative. Many were to amuse and instruct his three sons.
There were the plaster of Paris moonscapes in the bathtub, the paddleboats to ply the waters of Lake Truesdale, the homemade jigsaw puzzles and rubber band pistols fashioned for active little boys. And he was the creative mind behind the motorized wooden go-cart powered by a lawn mower engine with wheels from an old tractor that is embossed in the memories of the Simpson boys, they said. His sons credit their dad's basement projects as the inspiration for their success as craftsmen today, Josh as a glassblower and Eliakim as a potter.
Mr. Simpson was an accomplished whittler, fashioning beautiful and practical ladles and scoops for his wife's kitchen, as well as artistic pieces. He was also an avid reader and a familiar face at the South Salem Library where he will be missed.
Mr. Simpson served on the board of the Truesdale Lake Property Owners Association, the South Salem Library Board of Trustees (on the book selection committee), and ran unsuccessfully for Town Board as a Democrat in the 1960s.
A memorial service will be held at the South Salem Presbyterian Church on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 1.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Westchester and Putnam, 540 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591.
Eleanor Thomas Elliott, 80, women's activist, civic leader
Eleanor Thomas Elliott, a foundation executive, civic leader, and women's activist, died on Sunday, Dec. 3, at a hospital in Valhalla. She was 80 and a longtime resident of Cross River.
The cause was a car accident, according to the family.
At the time of her death, Mrs. Elliott was a trustee emerita of Barnard College, and a trustee of Cornell Weill Medical School and hospital. She was the first woman board member of Celanese Corporation and C.I.T. Financial, and served as president of the board of trustees of Barnard College from 1973 to 1976. She was a life trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where she had been on the board since 1972. She was also a life overseer of Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Mrs. Elliott was chair emerita of the board of trustees of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. She received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Duke University in 2002 and received the Walter Wriston Leadership Award from the New York Weill Cornell Council in 2005. She was a presidential appointee to the National Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs during the administration of Ronald Reagan.
As president of the board of Barnard College Mrs. Elliott, who was known as Elly, led a fight against an unfriendly takeover battle by Columbia University. In the 1960s, fiscally strapped Columbia University administrators looked at Barnard, which was solvent, as an attractive takeover opportunity. Inspired by the burgeoning women's movement of the late 1960s, Mrs. Elliott, along with a small group of administrators, faculty and students, rethought Barnard's mission as a college for women in more explicitly feminist terms.
Barnard remained independent. Mrs. Elliott has served as a member of the Barnard Board of Trustees since 1959 and president of it from 1973 to 1976. She subsequently helped found the Barnard Women's Center. Barnard named a dormitory after Mrs. Elliott in recognition of her contributions to the school.
Mrs. Elliott was born in New York City on April 26, 1926, the second child and only daughter of James A. Thomas and Dorothy Quincy Thomas. Her parents met in 1919 in Peking, China, where her father was an executive of the British American Tobacco Company and her mother was working as social secretary to the U.S. minister to China. As a young woman, her mother worked at the American legation in St. Petersburg, Russia, and then in Tianjin, China. She escaped the Russian revolution on the trans-Siberian railway.
The family returned to the United States upon the birth of their first child. Mrs. Elliot grew up in White Plains, and attended the Rye Country Day School. She attended Chapin School and then Barnard College.
During the 1950s, she served as social secretary to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a cousin, where she said she learned the art of protocol.
Mrs. Elliott was married
to John ('Jock') Elliott, an advertising executive, and became a professional volunteer. She devoted her life to civic work and writing. In addition to her work for the Barnard Board of Trustees, she became a contributing editor to Glamour and Vogue. Mrs. Elliott was the author of a book, Eleanor Elliott Glamour Party Book. Later, she was an assistant director of the research and writing division of the New York Republican State Committee. Mrs. Elliott was the steward of the island of Staffa in Scotland, which she and her husband donated to the National Trust of Scotland.
A lifelong Republican, Mrs. Elliott became disillusioned with what she saw as Republicans' obstructionist approach toward national health programs, the environment, poverty and women's issues, her family said. She abandoned the Republican Party after President George W. Bush cut off worldwide financing for birth control information. In 2003, she joined the Democratic Party.
But Mrs. Elliott's consuming passion was women's rights. She was a member of the board of the NOW Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a member of the National Association of Women. She liked to quote Abigail Adams, who wrote: 'Remember the ladies. If care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a revolution.' When she was accepting her honorary doctorate from Duke University for her work on behalf of women, Mrs. Elliott concluded by saying: 'There has been great progress but we are not all the way there. It is up to you now, no matter what you choose to do, to keep the goal of equality always in mind. And to help your sisters.'
Mrs. Elliott's husband, John Elliott Jr., the chairman emeritus of Ogilvy and Mather, died a year ago. They had no children. She is survived by her brother-in-law, Osborn Elliott, and 10 nieces and nephews.
