Former Bloomfield School Board Member Alongi Honored by County Officials

The Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders celebrated Italian Heritage Month during earlier this month at the Hall of Records, honoring local Italian American who had made significant impacts on their community, including Paul Alongi, Sr., of Bloomfield.  

District 4 Freeholder Leonard Luciano of West Caldwell and District 5 Freeholder Brendan Gill of Montclair hosted the event.

Born in Newark, Paul Alongi, Sr. graduated from Barringer High School, earned a B.A. from Rutgers University, served in the U. S. Army from 1955-56, earned his J.D. from Seton Hall Law School, and then practiced law for 25 years.   

For the last 25 years, he has been the Operations Manager and Claims Manager for First Indemnity of America Insurance Company and Vice President of the Holding Company, ABSCO Ltd. Corp.  

He served on the Bloomfield Board of Education, the New Jersey Commission of Investigations, and has also been a long-time leader in many community organizations, including the Bloomfield Federation of Music and Civic Band, the Garden State Concert Band, St. Thomas the Apostle Parish and Finance Councils, Holy Name Society and Circle of Friends.  

Alongi has also held many leadership positions with UNICO, including member/President/Secretary of Bloomfield UNICO and President and third Vice President of UNICO National. He was named West Essex UNICO’s Man of the Year and received UNICO’s Mille Grazie and Vastola awards. Additionally, he was named the St. Thomas the Apostle Man of the Year, selected as the Grand Marshal of the 2012 Nutley-Belleville Columbus Day Parade, was appointed a Cavalieri (was Knighted) by the Government of Italy; and was an original trustee for the National Italian-American Foundation (NIAF).  Alongi lives in Bloomfield with his wife, Toni, and they have two children, Paul A. Alongi and Gina Ring, and six grandchildren. 

“I have come to know Mr. Alongi through his work, not only through his involvement locally in Bloomfield, but also through his history for many, many years in Italian-American activities,” Gill said. “Today it is my privilege and honor to acknowledge him for all his efforts and all his accomplishments in celebration of his Italian-American heritage.”

Alongi, who ran for freeholder in 1970, joked that it took him 43 years to get into the room.

“We all have different stories to tell about our heritage,” he said. “My dad was an Italian merchant marine, and he jumped ship in New York to escape Mussolini and fascism, eventually making it to Newark.”

He also explained that years ago when he was young, Italian Americans didn’t promote their heritage through events like this, but by working to keep our families together during difficult times.   

He also spoke about joining the Italian service organization, UNICO, years later, and about how it changed his life and began his commitment to public service.   

“It was a turning point in my life,” he said. “And I went on to be the National President and to become a Cavalieri in Italy for our efforts helping with earthquake recovery.”  He went on to thank his family for supporting him throughout his work and thanked the Board “for this great honor.”

Freeeholder Leonard Luciano described his grandfather and namesake, Leonard Michael Luciano, who immigrated to the United States from Benevento, Italy, in 1901 at the age of 12 and settled in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood before moving to Livingston in 1931, where he’d purchased farmland like his family owned back in Italy. 

Gill surprised many by revealing that his paternal grandfather’s name was Federico Giglioli.

“He experienced discrimination and even physical abuse solely for being an Italian-American and a Roman Catholic,” Gill said.

“The most important thing my grandfather preached was tolerance, and that coming from a man who had every reason to be angry, to be upset, for having been denied employment because of where he came from, and who he was,” Gill said. “So today, I think it is important that we recognize people like my grandfather, Italian-Americans we might not have read about in textbooks, but who set the precedent for events like these.”