BIOGRAPHIES

About Our Fathers

Frederick Mauriello

Frederick Mauriello

Frederick Joseph Mauriello, Sr. was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 20, 1921. He was the first child and only son of Eugene and Angelina Mauriello, both immigrants from Avellino, Italy. They entered the United States with millions of other southern European immigrants during the first decades of the twentieth century. "Freddy," as he was called in family circles, was followed by three sisters: Edna, born February 27, 1923, Marie, born November 2,1924, and Dorothy, born February 26, 1927. The Mauriello family initially settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a working class section of Boston. In 1937 they moved to the Beachmont section of Revere, Massachusetts, an immediate suburb of Boston.

Like many first generation immigrants, the children assimilated into American culture in the public spaces of school, work and civic life. However, they continued to embrace and retain their Italian heritage and their Roman Catholic faith in thehome, around the dinner table and among their close circle of relatives and family friends.

Like many World War II veterans, Frederick and his family were profoundly shaped by the experiences of the Great Depression. The parents and children all worked various jobs and pooled their resources to support the family during these dire economic years. Like many others, the "Depression experience" reinforced and deepened Frederick's commitment to the importance of family, faith and friendship, but also created a lifelong focus on economic circumstance, educational achievement, and social position.

Frederick graduated from Revere High School in 1939. Following his childhood fascination with radio, he attended Massachusetts Radio School and received his radio operator's license. Using this technical background, he worked in the Charlestown Navy Yard installing radio towers and radio systems on a variety of naval vessels. With the United States' entry in World War II in 1941, Frederick joined the United States' Army in 1942 and was sent to Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) in electrical engineering at the University of Connecticut.

With the army's need for men with specialized training, Frederick was sent to join the 309th Field Artillery Battalion, Headquarters Battery as a radio operator directing artillery fire. He trained with the battalion in Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Camp Pickett, Virginia. Frederick and the battalion were sent to Bristol, England in October 1944 and landed in Le Havre, France on November 22, 1944. He wrote letters back home to his parents and sisters throughout his military experience and the letters from the 1943 to the end of 1945 are on display in this book.

Frederick was honorably discharged from the army in early 1946. Like many veterans, he participated in the GI Bill and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from Boston College 1951 and an M.B.A. from Northeastern University in 1954. He married Jacqueline Santos, a RN from Massachusetts, in 1955. During that same year began over a thirty-year career with IBM in New York. Frederick and Jacqueline raised five children, Mary Angela, Frederick, Christopher, Margaret, and Lisa in Millbrook, New York.

Frederick Mauriello passed away on August 30, 2004 in Poughkeepsie, NY.

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