Obituary of John Cappelli

John Cappelli, a distinguished journalist whose virtuoso career of over half a century in news embraced everything from foreign correspondence to cultural reportage to Italian-American community affairs, passed away peacefully at St. Francis Hospital on Sunday, April 26, 2009. He was 81, and had lived in Poughkeepsie since 1995. Over the course of a journalistic venture which spanned the decades from presidents Eisenhower to Obama and continued to the week of his passing, Mr. Cappelli balanced a lifelong commitment to working people's rights and human justice with a high standard of objectivity infused with compassion. Based at the United Nations for over four decades, he brought such major historical events as the Cuban Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of President Kennedy, the Space Program, and the Vietnam War to readers in Italy and America with stunning immediacy and profound insight. Born on November 18, 1927 in Union City, NJ, he was the son of American WWI veteran Giuseppe Cappelli and Savina Servilio Cappelli, who was born on Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Little Italy. After his mother's death, he was raised in Rome and L'Aquila, Italy. During WWII, Mr. Cappelli rendered conspicuous service to his country when, as an American civilian teenager in Nazioccupied Italy, he provided food and shelter to escaped British prisoners of war, as well as timely information on enemy movements that allowed them to avoid being recaptured and return to the fight, all at considerable risk to his life. After returning to America in 1946, he served in the Army Air Force in San Antonio, Texas, from 1947 to 1949. His subsequent residences included the Arthur Avenue and Edenwald sections of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Bronxville, New York. On December 29, 1962, Mr. Cappelli married the novelist and teacher Nives Rovedo at Nativity of Our Blessed Lady Church in the Bronx. She survives him, as do his son, Vanni, also a journalist, and daughter Cybele, a librarian, and numerous friends and colleagues around the world. All knew him to be a devoted husband and loving father. After attending college at the Latin American Institute in Manhattan, Mr. Cappelli started his career with the newspaper "L'Unita del Popolo", published in the Bronx. From 1956 to 1984 he was the American correspondent of "Paese Sera" of Rome, Italy, later writing for the Italian-American newspapers "Il Progresso" and "America Oggi", the latter of which he helped found in 1988. In June, 1963, Mr. Cappelli met President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the Oval Office. Among the other historical figures he personally encountered were the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., UN Secretary General U Thant, W.E.B. DuBois, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and Che Guevara. In 1966, he served as the Secretary of the Foreign Press Association in Manhattan, established in 1918. Because he and the President of the Association at the time, his friend and UN office mate, David Horowitz, were responsible for reviving the FPA when it had fallen into decline, both were made Life Members. At the time of his passing, Mr. Cappelli had finished his memoirs in Italian, entitled "Memorie d'un cronista d'assalto". One of his final articles was a poignant remembrance of his childhood in L'Aquila, which suffered a devastating earthquake in April. Burial will be private, with commemorations of his extraordinary life to be held in Manhattan, which will be announced. Local arrangements under the directions of Timothy P. Doyle Funeral Home Inc., 371 Hooker Ave., Poughkeepsie