Annette Marchitello, 95, Community Advocate
Annette passed away peacefully on November 1st, 2025, All Saint’s Day, at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan after a long illness.
Annette came from a close-knit multi-generational Sicilian family in the Wakefield section of the Northeast Bronx. She was born to Mary (née Perrone) and Emmanuele DiCarlo on June 23rd, 1930. She was the oldest of two children and grew up large household surrounded by her maternal grandparents, four aunts, and an uncle. The Sicilian dialect was often spoken at home with her grandparents, but English was her first language. She attended Evander Childs High School, where she majored in Italian, and graduated with honors as president of her Class of 1948. Annette was a brilliant and multi-talented woman. In high school her dream was to work for the State
Department and travel, but life led her elsewhere. She had three careers in her lifetime; as a young woman in her first job at Knoll International, she worked with a multitude of international artists and designers who were famous in the 1950s. Among them were Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarenin, and Mies van der Rohe. She even met Salvador Dalí. She was assistant to Mr. Knoll himself, who put such stock in her that he offered her the stewardship of a planned showroom in Chicago. One of the celebrities Annette met at Knoll was Nelson Rockefeller; he liked her and would often bring her coffee and chat. He had a considerable influence on her, and she later became what one would call a “Rockefeller Republican.”
In 1954 she left Knoll Design; she married and devoted herself to her own family for the next 14 years, when her third career, in local politics and Italian cultural affairs, called to her. In 1978 she moved from Carpenter Avenue in Wakefield to Rhinelander Avenue in the Morris Park section of the Bronx. She worked for a decade as a hospital administrator and, later, a Patient Advocate at Jacobi Hospital.
Annette was always a leader. She served as the president of the New York State Federation of Republican Women from 1991-93, and worked as an executive assistant to NY State Senator Guy Velella, and his predecessor, Senator John D. Calandra. She retired in 1995, during her tenure with Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, after over a decade of service as the Ombudsman for the Office of the Bronx Borough President. She was once profiled in a 1988 article in the NY Daily News called “Bring Her Your Red Tape.” She had many colleagues and friends over the years and was a founding member of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at CUNY, a member of the Board of the Enrico Fermi Cultural Center at the Belmont Library, and a longserving member of Bronx Community Board 11.
Annette was a devoted wife and mother, a loyal friend, and a good neighbor.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association
Special thanks to her kind and compassionate longtime caregivers, Ndieme and Yasin Fall, Sophie Seck, and Aicha Alexander.
