See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Shavana Abruzzo
Brooklyn Daily
Brooklyn-born Purple Heart recipient Cosmo “Gus” Cangiano — a Neapolitan butcher’s son who advanced his father’s American Dream of a pork store empire while at the same time rescuing wayward kids from delinquency — died of cancer on June 7 at his home on Staten Island. He was 81, and passed away less than a year after the death of his wife of 53 years, Gloria.
The devoted father of four was awarded the military decoration for his heroics as an Army airborne military policeman during the Korean War, but the avid Yankees and boxing fan — also a skilled painter — was better known as an entrepreneur who immersed himself in the community and labored around the clock in a white apron for more than 40 years to put Cangiano’s on the map, with five thriving salumerias in Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge, and Gravesend, and on Staten Island.
The iconic chain fed faithful customers from the Depression through the new millennium with some of the freshest produce, cold cuts, homemade sausage, and specialty foods around — usually with Gus behind the counter, serving them with a smile.
“He made Cangiano’s what it was, and he was always for the underdog,” said his daughter Laura Cangiano, an account executive at Courier Life Publications, adding that her father was a good Samaritan who put errant teens to work to keep them on the straight and narrow.
She recalled a cop paying him a visit when he was hospitalized in January.
“He asked, ‘Do you remember me? I was the worst kid on the block and you turned me into the man I am today because I would be in jail if it wasn’t for you,’ ” she said.
Former employees attested to his kindness and good nature.
Brooklyn deli-man Andrew Pace, 51, worked at the flagship store on 14th Avenue and 65th Street as a 14 year old, and still remembers the life lessons Cangiano taught him.
“Gus would tell me, ‘When you go to work, make sure you give 100 percent,’ and I still do to this day,” said Pace, a worker at Faicco’s Pork Store in Bay Ridge. “He was a good and kind man, and if I needed $20 or a sandwich to take home, that was no problem.”
Cangiano and his six siblings grew up in the Bensonhurst store his parents Pasquale and Anna opened in 1919, shortly after emigrating from Italy — hand-in-hand through Ellis Island.
“We were brought up in the trade,” he told this newspaper after the Bay Ridge store closed in 2011. “We used to work 16 hours a day.”
The close-knit family managed to triumph over tragedy: Pasquale died of a sudden brain hemorrhage at 44, leaving his devastated widow, 36, to run the business and raise their children. Cangiano eventually took over the reins, added new stores, and split duties with his brothers Louis, Patsy, Frank, and Danny, and nephew Carmine, but successive generations opted for other careers and the dynasty dwindled.
Its death was tough on Cangiano, who retired in 2000 and didn’t mince words when a Dunkin’ Donuts surfaced at the site of the original Bensonhurst store.
“It gets me sick every time I go down there to collect the rent,” he said at the time.
Yet former shoppers like Joanna Pellicano still salivate at the thought of savoring — for old times sake — a glistening sliver of Cangiano’s soppressota, prosciutto di parma, capicola, and other meats and cheeses that made it a cut above the rest. The former Gravesend resident remembers patronizing the store on Ave. U and W. Seventh Street as a 10-year-old with her mother, and then as a married woman with her own family.
“It was a wonderful place to shop, the go-to place for all the Italian specialities, and chock-full of all kinds of the good stuff,” Pellicano said. “You were greeted like family, and you always knew that the food was going to be fresh and delicious.”
Gus Cangiano is survived by his daughter Laura Cangiano; sons Anthony, Joseph and Cosmo, Jr.; brothers Louis, Patsy, and Danny; sisters Jenny Vartolo and Angelina Cangiano; eight grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews, and great nieces and nephews.
He was laid to rest at Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island.
Courier Life Publications and Community Newspaper Group extend their condolences to the Cangiano family.