NICHOLAS J. CAVAGNARO (1918 - 2018)

Nicholas J. Cavagnaro, died Feb. 20, 2018 at the Green Home, at the age of 99. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Nov. 7, 1918.

Always interested in airplanes and flying, he obtained a pilot's license when he was 16 at Floyd Bennett Field, near his home in Brooklyn. He was a graduate of Brooklyn Prep and earned a business degree from the University of Detroit in 1941. Nick enlisted in the 20th Army Air Corp during WWII, serving over three years as an aerial photo technician on the island of Saipan in the Pacific area.

Retiring from the service, Nick married Shirley Maurer on Feb. 7, 1948, in Detroit, Mich. When he inherited his father's business, All Ports Stevedoring, they moved to the North Shore of Long Island.

Shirley and Nick raised nine children: four boys, Nicholas, Michael, Gerard and Kenneth; and five girls, Christine Palmer, Marie Cavagnaro, Monica Debra Hunt, Barbara Zahor and Nancy Cavagnaro. There are nine grandchildren.

Nick's business interest included Coronado Travel Agency in Manhasset, N.Y., and Abington Motors, a foreign car dealership, Hempstead, N.Y. His last work on Long Island was as a supervisor of Gertz/Sterns Retail Store.

Nick and Shirley retired to Tioga to a small farm where Nick converted the main field to a grass airstrip. Although at this time he did not own an airplane, he had many pilot friends use the field and often gliders, from Elmira landed there in emergencies.

Wellsboro and The Laurels were their home until Nick became a resident of The Green Home in September 2017. Shirley often reminded him of the busy interesting life they had.

The family would like to express their sincere gratitude to The Laurels and The Green Home for the care and kindness of the past years.

Nick's burial will be at the Bath National Cemetery in Bath, N.Y. A memorial mass will be held at St. Peter's Catholic Church, Wellsboro, in the near future, when family members who live around the country will be able to attend.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Peter's Catholic Church, 47 Central Ave., Wellsboro, PA 16901.

Local arrangements are entrusted to Tussey-Mosher Funeral Home, 139 Main St., Wellsboro.