Generations of Stewardship
The Zangari Family History
The Zangari family didn’t just come to America. They built it, one trench, one wire, one deal at a time. For two and a half centuries, every direct paternal ancestor was born, worked, and died within earshot of the same church bell tower: the Church of San Nicola di Bari in the mountain village of Cittanova, Reggio Calabria. That single square of Calabrian soil is the only place the unbroken Zangari line ever existed, until one man, one suitcase, and one steamship ticket changed everything. What follows is the verified story of seven generations of builders: from the mason who raised a town from earthquake rubble to the family office moving capital across continents today. (For the best experience, view this timeline on desktop.)
Francesco Antonio Zangari (1770 – after 1840), married to Maria Domenica Ferraro, lived the hard, sun-scorched life of a Calabrian peasant in the mountain village of Casalnuovo (today’s Cittanova) under the last years of the Bourbon kingdom.
By trade he was a mason and farmer, strong-backed and quiet-spoken, who could swing a hammer or a hoe with equal skill. All day he shaped stone for the baron’s walls and the village church, then walked home to the tiny olive terraces he and vine rows he was slowly buying with every calloused coin he earned. He and Maria Domenica raised their children in a low stone house in Contrada San Nicola, teaching them to read the sky for rain and the soil for hunger.
He was the first in the long line to believe that a man’s sweat could become land, and land could become freedom. Before the earthquake of 1783 ever shook the world apart, Francesco Antonio was already laying the real foundation of everything that would follow: one stone, one olive tree, one stubborn day at a time.
Francesco Antonio Zangari (1770 – after 1840) lived through hell on earth when the great Calabrian earthquake of 1783 turned Cittanova (then called Casalnuovo) into a pile of smoking stones in a single February night. The church of San Nicola collapsed, the feudal palace crumbled, and almost every house in the village was flattened. Thousands died across the region; in Cittanova the survivors slept under the stars for weeks while aftershocks kept coming.
While nobles fled and priests prayed, Francesco Antonio rolled up his sleeves. Still a young man in his early teens, he was already known as a strong-backed mason. He became one of the handful of local men who literally rebuilt the town with their own hands: hauling fallen stones, mixing lime mortar at dawn, and laying the first courses of the new grid-pattern streets and the reborn Church of San Nicola di Bari that still stands today. Those walls he raised in 1784–1785 still stand; the bell tower that rings over Cittanova every evening is the same one he helped lift into the sky. From the ashes of that catastrophe he carved out the first small plots of land that would one day belong to his son Domenico, his grandson Teodoro, and his great-grandson Pietro. The earthquake took everything; Francesco Antonio gave the town, and his family, a future built of sweat and stone.
Domenico Zangari (1809 – after 1870), married to Rosa Caterina Zaccuri, was a farmer by trade and a quiet political force by reputation. In 1832, in a Calabria still ruled by Bourbon kings and feudal barons, this illiterate peasant was elected decurione, town councillor, an almost unheard-of feat for a man who owned little more than the dirt under his fingernails. He sat at the same table as the local gentry, spoke softly, and waited. When the government finally began selling off the old feudal estates, Domenico was ready. Strip by strip, with patient haggling and every coin he could scrape together, he bought the land that would feed his children and grandchildren for the next century. Stubborn as the Aspromonte rock itself, he taught his son Teodoro and through him every generation that followed one unbreakable rule: “Money comes and goes, but land stays."
Teodoro Zangari (1861 – after 1920) married Teresa Sinopoli (1870–1928) and spent his entire life as a full-time contadino on the same stony terraces above Cittanova, coaxing olives, bergamot, and stubborn vines out of the Aspromonte soil. He lived through the great hunger of 1898 when the village ate acorns and grass, through waves of malaria that emptied half the houses, and through the night in 1908 when the earth roared and the roof tiles rained down like hail. While younger men fled to America, Teodoro stayed, patched the cracks, and quietly saved every spare lira so that his son Pietro could buy a steamship ticket and never have to come back hungry. The last pure farmer in the direct line, he never once left Calabria, but he made damn sure the next generation did.
Born: 1895, Cittanova, Italy
Died: 1987, Ocean County, NJ (92 yo)
Married 1st Francesca Rigitano (1900-1940)
2nd Maria (after 1940)
Born in Cittanova, Reggio Calabria, Italy, Pietro was the son of farmer Teodoro Zangari. He fought for Italy on the Isonzo Front in World War I, survived the trenches, and returned to a starving, earthquake-ruined village in 1919.
In June 1923 he arrived alone at Ellis Island aboard the steamship SS Colombo, age 28, carrying $50 and the address of a cousin in Newark, New Jersey. Francesca and their son followed a few years later as the other children were born in America.
Pietro worked as a manual laborer laying water mains, sewer lines, and gas pipelines across the Northeast, paid by the foot through the worst years of the Great Depression. The family lived first in Niagara Falls, New York, then Newark, and finally settled in Lakewood, New Jersey.
Francesca died suddenly around 1940. Several of the youngest children spent a short time in a Newark Catholic orphanage while Pietro worked double shifts to bring them home.
The Eight Children of Pietro & Francesca Zangari;
- Teodoro “Teddy” Zangari (1921-2008)
- Theresa Zangari Caruso (1928-2016)
- James “Jimmy” Zangari (1929–2011)
- Peter Zangari (jr) (1930-2023)
- Rose Zangari Palumbo (1934–1992)
- Antonino J. “Anthony” Zangari (1937–2012)
- Francesco "Frank" Zangari (1938-2025)
During World War II Pietro voluntarily returned to Italy (1940–1948) to protect his elderly father and homeland, serving in a labour battalion. At 53 years old Pietro came back to New Jersey in 1948 with his new wife Santa Maria Miceli (1908-1998), she was 40 years old.
The Two Children of Pietro & Maria Zangari;
- Anna Marie Zangari Shevchik
- Angela Zangari Coffey
Pietro Zangari was twenty years old when Italy entered World War I in 1915. Like every able-bodied man in Cittanova, he was conscripted into the Italian Royal Army and sent to the brutal Isonzo Front in the Alps, where his regiment endured eleven battles against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, poison gas, and the catastrophic defeat at Caporetto in 1917. He survived the trenches and was discharged after the Armistice in November 1918. Returning to a starving, earthquake-damaged Calabria in 1919–1920, he found no work and no future. This is when he started to plan to head to America for a better future when the time deemed right.
On May 25, 1923, thirty-year-old Pietro Zangari kissed his wife Francesca, his son, and his father Teodoro goodbye on the crowded pier in Naples, Italy. Carrying one suitcase and $50 in his pocket, he boarded the Italian steamship SS Colombo alone and sailed third-class across the Atlantic. Thirteen days later, on the morning of June 7, 1923, the SS Colombo steamed into New York harbor and docked at Ellis Island. Pietro Zangari, age 28, farmer from Cittanova, Reggio Calabria, brown hair, brown eyes, 5'6" tall, stepped onto American soil with the only Zangari on the manifest, carrying the address of his cousin Salvatore Basile in Newark, New Jersey.
That single voyage, May 25 to June 7, 1923, marks the exact moment Pietro left Calabria and began the Zangari family’s American story. Less than two years later, on April 30, 1925, at age 29, he stood in a New York courtroom and became a United States citizen, one of the fastest Italian immigrants of his generation to take the oath.
“L’America è amara, ma è pane.” - America is bitter, but it’s bread.
(An old Calabrian saying when going to America)
James Zangari ("Jimmy")
Born: 1929, Newark, NJ
Died: 2011, Newark, NJ (81 yo)
Married Anna Nee Valvano for 61 years
James "Jimmy" Zangari, son of Pietro Zangari, was a respected New Jersey politician and public servant known for his commitment to bipartisanship and community. Born in Newark to Italian immigrant parents, Jimmy overcame a challenging childhood that included time in an orphanage after his mother's death, eventually serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and establishing a successful career in construction. His transition to public service began in 1972 as Irvington's director of housing, leading to a long and impactful tenure in the New Jersey General Assembly, where he served from 1980 to 1996. Jimmy was the prime sponsor of key legislation, including the landmark "Moment of Silence" law for public schools, which required a rare override of a gubernatorial veto. He was remembered by family and colleagues as a devoted husband, father, and grandfather who loved to cook and use his humor to bridge political divides, leaving a legacy as an influential and caring lawmaker.
When the stock market crashed in 1929, Pietro Zangari had been in America only a few years and was still classified as an “alien.” Pipeline work vanished overnight. By 1933, one in every two Italian men in Newark was out of work.
Pietro, Francesca, and their growing family survived the only way they knew how. Pietro took any day labor he could find: shovelling snow, unloading coal barges on the Passaic River, digging ditches by hand. Francesca turned their small Newark apartment into a boarding house for newly arrived Calabrian cousins, charging a quarter a night for a mattress on the floor. The older boys left school and worked the streets: delivering ice, selling newspapers, shining shoes on Broad Street. When cash ran out they bartered. Pietro fixed neighbours’ plumbing for sacks of flour; Francesca sewed dresses for loaves of bread.
They fed eight children through the worst years of the Depression the same way their ancestors had survived centuries of hardship in Calabria: relentless work, tight family, and fierce pride.
That stubborn endurance, forged in the hunger of the 1930s, became the real inheritance Pietro and Francesca gave their children, and the foundation on which every later success was built.
Antonino Joseph Zangari ("Anthony")
Born: 1937, Niagara Falls, NY
Died: 2012, New Jersey (75 yo)
Married Marilyn Tuozzolo for 52 years
One of Pietro's children, Antonino J. grew up in Newark's vibrant Italian neighborhoods, graduating from Central High School and serving as a Corporal in the U.S. Army. A self-taught electrical whiz from junior high experiments, he channeled his father's pipeline earnings into the trades. Co-founding Dynamic Electric in the 1960s, Antonino's firm became a powerhouse, wiring hospitals, schools, malls, and high-rises across Essex, Ocean, and Monmouth Counties through the '90s.
Antonino J. was a community pillar, PTA president, 4th degree Knights of Columbus leader, UNICO member, and St. Luke's parishioner. By retirement, he'd amassed multimillionaire status, but his true legacy was mentoring his sons in the family ethos. He passed after battling cancer in 2012, remembered for bocce games, mushroom foraging, and family feasts.
By 1940 Pietro Zangari had been a U.S. citizen for fifteen years. His naturalisation was completed in 1925, the same year he filed his Declaration of Intention, making him one of the fastest Italian immigrants of his era to take the oath.
When Mussolini declared war in June 1940, Pietro was legally exempt from any Italian military recall. But Francesca died suddenly in 1940, leaving him a 45-year-old widower with eight children. Family stories and the complete absence of Pietro in New Jersey records from 1941 to 1948 agree: he voluntarily returned to Calabria sometime in 1940–1941, both to protect his elderly father Teodoro and, some say, to answer a lingering sense of duty to the country that had raised him.
Too old for front-line combat, he served in a labour battalion or civil-defense unit in Reggio Calabria province, repairing roads and shelters while Allied bombs fell and the 1943 invasion turned his childhood villages into battlegrounds once more.
He survived the war in Italy. In 1948, now 52, he sailed back to America on the SS Saturnia, this time bringing with him his new wife Santa Maria Miceli (40 yo), who became the children’s stepmother as simply "Maria".
He walked back into the house in Newark NJ, gathered his children, and never spoke openly of those lost years again.
Zangari Construction Company
Teodoro "Teddy" Zangari (Left), James "Jimmy" Zangari, Pietro Zangari (Right)
Antonino J Zangari & Marylin Tuzzolo Wedding in 1960.
Maria Zangari, Pietro Zangari, Antonino J. Zangari, and his newlywed wife, Marylin Zangari (Tuzzolo), Caroline Tuzzolo, Rocco Tuzzolo (Marylin's Father).
Anthony Zangari (Jr.)
Born: 1961, Essex County, NJ
Married Gina M. Dellaventura (1963-2013)
Anthony Zangari (Jr.), the eldest son of Antonino Joseph Zangari, began his career as an electrician working in his father’s company. In the late 1980s he and his wife Gina founded Ultra Contractors as an electrical contracting business with $5,000 in starting capital.
As New Jersey’s construction boom accelerated, they recognized the growing demand for wastewater infrastructure to support new residential and commercial development. In the early 1990s Ultra Contractors shifted its primary focus from electrical work to the design, construction, and maintenance of sewage treatment plants.
Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Ultra became the leading contractor in this sector in New Jersey, building and upgrading municipal plants and package treatment systems across New Jersey.
By the early 2000s, when Anthony and Gina reduced day-to-day involvement, Ultra Contractors had generated a Decamillion-dollar status through consistent growth and reinvestment in the business.
Mark Vincent Zangari ("Deedz")
Born: 1963, Irvington, NJ
Died: 2024, Holy Springs, GA (60 yo)
Married his lovely wife Jennifer
Mark Vincent Zangari, son of Antonino J Zangari ("Anthony"), known to many as "Deedz," lived a life defined by entrepreneurial spirit, deep community commitment, and profound devotion to his large family before his passing at the age of 60 in July 2024. Residing in Holly Springs, Georgia, Mark was a highly respected figure, serving as the Director of Operations for Sweetwater Mission, a role that underscored his dedication to civic duty. His impact on the local area was formally recognized when the Cobb Chamber of Commerce named him the 2014 West Cobb Citizen of the Year. Beyond his professional life, Mark was a cherished husband to Jennifer, a father of eight, and a grandfather. He was remembered fondly by friends and family for his unique ability to find humor and positivity in any circumstance, leaving behind a legacy of selfless service and an infectious, optimistic approach to life.
James “Jimmy” Zanagri transitioned from a successful construction career to public service in 1972, when Irvington Mayor Harry Stevenson appointed him director of housing, a role he held for 11 years. His work on urban renewal was cited in the Congressional Record. In 1977, he ran for the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders and won, receiving the highest vote total among all county-wide candidates. His campaign drew record crowds, including 2,400 supporters at a rally in West Orange. As a freeholder, he took a hands-on approach to reforming the county’s dysfunctional geriatric facility, even establishing an office there, and was credited with completely overhauling its operations.
In 1979, Jimmy was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly, where he served eight consecutive terms until 1995, rising from assistant majority whip to deputy speaker. Known for his humor, infectious smile, and love of Italian cooking, he brought a personal touch to politics, setting up a kitchenette in his legislative office and hosting bipartisan lunch gatherings for governors, congressmen, and local officials. Former Governor Jim Florio fondly recalled enjoying Jimmy’s Italian dishes during session days. Jimmy also traveled regularly to Trenton in a van pool with fellow northern New Jersey legislators, embodying his approachable, collegial style while leaving a lasting legacy of service and community.
Zangari Family Reunion
Antonino J Zangari (Left), Rose Zangari, Teodoro "Teddy" Zangari, Theresa Zangari, Peter Zangari, James "Jimmy" Zangari, Ann Marie Zangari (Right)
Antonino Rocco Zangari ("Nino")
Born: 1989, Toms River, NJ
Engaged to Julianne Apa
Nino, grandson of Antonino J. Zangari and son of Anthony Zangari, inherited no capital, only the family’s construction knowledge and work ethic. Starting at age 14 with nothing but a will to learn and build, he spent his entire teens & twenties building the family real estate portfolio with his own hands: acquiring, renovating, and developing coastal residential properties, retail centers, office buildings, self-storage facilities, and industrial warehouses throughout New Jersey.
He personally managed every phase of the process; acquisition, demolition, framing, electrical, HVAC, permitting, leasing, and financing, while also serving as landlord and manager and the companies go too realtor. Working tirelessly, he steadily added one property after another. By his early thirties, the portfolio had grown large enough to form the foundation of a sizable professional investment platform. At that point, he stepped away from the family portfolio and business to start fresh, pivoting into private equity and institutional-grade deals.
Today, as Principal and Chairman of the Zangari Family Office, Nino manages an institutionalized portfolio spanning real estate, energy, precious metals, oil, and high-growth ventures across the United States and internationally. In his mid-thirties he became a self-made success, continuing the generation Zangari tradition of starting from zero and building lasting wealth through construction and disciplined investments.
A Zangari Wedding
Mark V Zangari (Left), Antonino J. Zangari, Christopher Zangari, Anthony Zangari (Right).
Zangari Family Gathering
Mark V Zangari (Left), Antonino J. Zangari (Middle), Anthony Zangari (Right). Antonino Rocco Zangari (Bottom Left, Son of Anthony Z) & Alexander Zangari (Right Right, Son of Mark Z)
Francesco Antonio rebuilt an entire town with his bare hands after the 1783 earthquake. Domenico turned a peasant’s seat on the town council into land that would feed generations. Teodoro stayed on the same stony terraces so his son Pietro could leave and never come back hungry. Pietro crossed the Atlantic twice, once in 1923 to escape poverty, once in World War II to protect the father who had made his escape possible. Anthony took a toolbox and built Dynamic Electric into one of New Jersey’s powerhouse contractors. Anthony Jr. and his wife Gina took the profits and built Ultra Contractors into a multimillion-dollar operating empire along the Jersey Shore. And Nino, the seventh generation, took the empire and turned it into a global family office that moves in real estate, energy, precious metals, and high-growth ventures across continents.
Seven generations, 251+ years, one continuous line of men who started with nothing but calloused hands and a refusal to stay small, and ended with citizenship, companies, and capital that will outlive us all.
That is the Zangari story: not luck, not a lottery ticket, but relentless, brilliant, back-breaking work passed from father to son until the name no longer meant peasant, it simply meant “we build things that last” and we’re still building.
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