Peter R. Zuzolo papers

Peter R. Zuzolo was born, raised, and educated in White Plains, New York, the son of immigrants, Angelo and Elvira Castaldo Zuzolo from San Arcangelo Trimonte (Benevento). A retired aerospace research engineer, he holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering Physics from New York University and a Master’s in Science in Applied Physics from Adelphi University, where he also taught undergraduate physics. He pursued additional graduate work at Harvard University, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee.

He served in the U.S. Air Force for three years and in the USAF Reserve for three years, and saw service in Japan, Korea, and Germany with the RAF during the Berlin Blockade. He is a life member of Amvets, the Italian American War Veterans, and the Disabled American Veterans. He was employed by Sperry Gyroscope, Republic Aviation Corp., Fairchild Hiller Industries, and Northrop Grumman Corp., where he still holds three classified US Navy patents. He has presented over thirty technical papers at professional conferences held at various universities and colleges.

Peter and his wife, Edith Magnotta Zuzolo, joined the Order Sons of Italy in America on May 16, 1960. They were charter members of the Arturo Toscanini Lodge #2107. He was the lodge’s second President, 1962–1964, and Edith served as fourteenth lodge President, 1983–1988. At the state level, he has served as Grand Trustee, 1966–1970; Principal Grand Trustee, 1969–1970; Second Assistant Grand Venerable, 1971–1973; First Assistant Grand Venerable, 1973–1977; and Grand Venerable, 1977–1981, of the New York State Lodge.

Among his many accomplishments was his establishment of the Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Award and the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor to Anthony Casamento. Edith and he were also vested as a knight and lady of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem by Terrance Cardinal Cooke in 1979. At the national level he has been Supreme Treasurer, 1981–1985; Third Vice President, 1985–1987; Second Vice President, 1987–1989; First Vice President, 1989–1991; and President, 1991–1993 (the first from New York in over fifty years). In 1980, he and General Tony Verrengia instituted the Douhet-Mitchell International Airpower trophies, awarded annually to the graduate staff officers with the best theses at the USAF Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Italian Air Force Scuola di Guerra Aerea in Florence, Italy. As national president, his major accomplishments were the celebration of the Columbus Quincentennial, the establishment of the OSIA 100 Group (now the Council on Strategic Planning), participation in the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, and adding the word “synergism” to the OSIA vocabulary. He received the rank of Cavaliere from the Republic of Italy in 1998.