Marie Castellano

Marie (May) Castellano originally a resident of Brooklyn and Locust Valley, died at home in Greenvale, LI on April 3, 2011 after a brief illness. A noted and highly respected educator, she began teaching a class of 60 sixth grade boys in 1959 at St. Cecelia School in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She began teaching in the Herricks School District in 1960, working with Grades 4 and 6 at various times during her career. Getting a place in her class was a goal of both parents and students as her reputation grew for demanding standards coupled with warmth and caring for her students and her willingness to see them as distinct individuals with different personal needs and learning >May attended Adelphi University from 1937 to 1941, when it was an all women's college, after it moved to Garden City from Brooklyn. She went on to graduate school at Columbia University, pursuing several degrees in French and Education. She also studied at NYU with reading teacher specialist Nila Banton Smith, becoming one of her disciples, placing reading instruction at the core of her curriculum.
Fluent in both French and Italian, she delighted in using her large collection of cookbooks in their original languages. She studied with a number of noted chefs including Nicola Zanghi and Nicholas Malgieri and willingly passed along her skills and recipes to cooks of all ages and abilities.
Her husband, Charles Castellano died in 1983. He was also a teacher who majored in French and shared her passion for European languages and cultures. He taught French and Italian and created a unique program of study, teaching English to newly arriving immigrants. At the same time he managed the family Italian specialty food store, begun by May's father, Benedetto Tota, in Brooklyn in 1921. Their two sons, Denis and Bruce both became English teachers on Long Island. Denis taught at Westbury High School until his death at age 41 in 1987, and Bruce retired from the English department at Mineola High School in 2005. He is currently on the faculty at Adelphi University teaching human rights courses in the school of education. He has received multiple awards from universities and organizations in the New York area.
May was an avid and highly opinionated follower of the political scene locally, statewide, and nationally. An unrepentant liberal-progressive, she delighted in poking holes in the arguments of conservative talk show pundits. She was a source of help, education and support for many new arrivals to the US and proudly related stories of her own family's arrival through Ellis Island from Apulia, Italy. Encouraged by early travels with her mother, she traveled extensively throughout the US and Europe. In addition to her prodigal memory, her copious lists, originally written by hand and later on her computer, outlining art to see, places to eat, buildings to visit, towns not to miss were readily produced for anyone making a first trip abroad. A verbal quiz and eager perusal of photographs awaited the returning traveler.
May is survived by her son, Bruce, and two sisters Dorothy Tota and Fran Genduso. Another sister, Victoria Tota died Easter Sunday, 2010. Visiting hours will be at Whitting Funeral Home in Glen Head Tues, April 5, 2011 from 2-5 and 7-9 pm. The funeral mass will be on April 6, 2011 at 11 AM, at St. Gertrude's Church in Bayville with burial at Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Good Shepherd Hospice, 245 Old Country Rd., Melville, NY 11747.