Dolores Cozzi

Obituary: Dolores L. Cozzi (1941-2024)

 Dolores L. Cozzi (nee Leo) 82 passed away peacefully on August 4, 2024 in the Ackerman Hospice Unit of Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Freehold, NJ after suffering a stroke. Dolores was born in New York City to Stella Gleba and William Leo on August 23, 1941. She graduated from St. Joseph’s Grammar School and Bushwick High School in Brooklyn.

She was the oldest of seven children whom she helped rear. Her deceased sisters include Janet Baker and Kathleen O’dea and a deceased brother-in-law, Alfred Cozzi. Her surviving family members are Donna Maroney and her husband Eddie; Linda Spanopoulas; Jim Baker and wife Lorraine; Billy Leo and wife Cindy; and brother-in-law Kevin O’dea.

In 1959 following school, Dolores was recruited as a typist at the AT&T corporate headquarters in lower Manhattan. She quickly rose through the ranks to become an executive secretary. In 1964 she married John V. Cozzi of West New York, NJ. They first met at the Jersey Shore in Avon on the July 4 weekend in 1960 when he was a sophomore at Notre Dame.

She is survived by her husband John, a retired Citibank executive, and their three sons and respective partners: John M. Cozzi and Alyce Cozzi; Chris Cozzi and Michele Whitman; and Timothy Cozzi and Lauren Landers; her sister- and brother-in-law Juliet and Ron Gumbaz: and brother-in-law Vincent Cozzi and sister-in-law Angela Cozzi.

In the midst of raising her children, Dolores returned to the work force. She worked in Special Education at Anna C. Scott School in Leonia and then as a Secretary to the Middle School Principal at the Dwight Middle School in Englewood.  She transferred to Dwight’s Development Office and eventually settled in as the longtime office manager of the College Guidance Department of Dwight Englewood High School, from which she retired in 2006 following 25+ years of service.

Dolores was an expert seamstress often making clothes for her young boys. She was an avid reader, an accomplished knitter, a crossword puzzle enthusiast, and a proficient cook; but most of all, a consummate mother. She raised her three boys with much love and pride and considered them her greatest legacy.

Her lifelong joy were the summers she spent at her summer home in Chadwick Beach, NJ.

Following her cremation, there will be a brief memorial service at Frank Patti Funeral Home in Fort Lee on Thursday evening, August 8th from 4:00-8:00 pm. A mass will be celebrated in her honor on Friday, August 9th at St. John’s R.C. Church in Leonia at 11:00 AM.

Please no flowers.  Memorials may be made to   Center for Hope & Safety: hopeandsafetynj.org