Anthony Campagna Dies at 84; Led School Building Program
Anthony Campagna, builder, former member of the Board of Education and philanthropist, died in his sleep yesterday (8 May 1969) at his apartment in Delmonico’s Hotel. His age was 84.
As president and more recently chairman of the boar of the Campagna Construction Corporation, Mr. Campagna built many skyscraper apartments along Park and Fifth Avenues.
As chairman of the Board of Education’s committee on building and sites in the nineteen-forties, he directed without pay a $100-million program of school construction. On his retirement from the board in 1949, the City Council, in a resolution, credited him with saving the city million of dollars in school construction costs.
Gov. Thomas E. Dewey named Mr. Campagna to the State Commission on School Building in 1950.
Restored Roman Ruins
Mr. Campagna was a founder of the Casa Italian at Columbia University. He restored Virgil’s Tomb in Naples and a historic Roman tower in Minturno; he contributed substantially to the Herculaneum excavations, to the Italian Historical Society in Rome, and to the orphans of World War I.
In 1930 King Victor Emmanuel III conferred on him the rank of Count, but he did not use the title, saying: “Builder is title enough.”
Mr. Campagna once stated his guide in life: “Always do more than you are expected to, and whatever you do, exert your level best and take pleasure in doing I. On the high plane of a famous prayer: Let your work be part of God’s plan, to serve Him and your fellow-man.”
Mr. Campagna was born in Castelmezzano, southeast of Naples. His father was a builder, but the son’s first aim was for the legal profession. He graduated with honor in 1906 from the Law School of the University of Naples. Disenchanted with his meager fees, he moved to Chicago in 1908 to join a friend in the publication of an Italian-language weekly. The paper did not prosper, so Mr. Campagna became clerk in an American law firm.
Turned Aside by Builders
On a visit to New York he met Joseph and Dr. Charles V. Paterno, the builders. They offered him a construction job and he soon relinquish his law career.
Among the residential building Mr. Campagna’s company erected were the luxurious 960 Fifth Avenue, 35 and 530 Park Avenue, and the Riverside Drive blockfront from 89th to 90th Street. The commercial building included the Rialto at 42nd Street and Broadway, the Ninth Federal Savings and Loan branch and office building at 45th Street and First Avenue, and the National Furniture Mart at 215 Lexington Avenue.
Surviving are two sons, Joseph A. and John J., a brother Armino; a sister, Maria Lombardi; six grandchildren, and a great-grandchild. His wife was the late Maria Paterno.
A funeral service will be held at 10 A.M. tomorrow at Frank E. Campbell’s Madison Avenue and 81st Street.
Read: Anthony Campagna’s Online Autobiography
