Retired teacher Anthony D'Onofrio dies

When Anthony D'Onofrio had a heart attack at age 39, he told his wife that he was going to live his life to the fullest.

The math teacher in the Seaford schools delved into his passions, producing high school plays for 15 years and helping to start an educational publishing company.

He directed community theater, hosted many friends at his North Babylon home and traveled abroad.

Just a few days after attending his 55th high school reunion in upstate Middletown, D'Onofrio suffered a stroke and died Friday at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip. He was 72.

"The thing I remember most about my father . . . is that he was always educating people," said his son, Ralph D'Onofrio, 47, of Old Bethpage. "There were always people around him and he was like the master of ceremonies."

After finishing at his hometown's Middletown High, D'Onofrio graduated from the former Albany State Teachers College, now University at Albany, in 1961. He obtained a master's degree in mathematics from New York University in 1971.

He was hired at Seaford High School right after college and taught there for 33 years, becoming chairman of the math department. He was the school's drama coach for 15 years.

He combined his interests in math and the stage by turning his classes into 45-minute productions. That could be expected from a man whose favorite play was "Man of La Mancha," about a mad knight bent on pursuing his dreams, his wife said.

"His colleagues told us they would pass his door and he might be on the radiator, maybe stepping down on a chair and explaining how fractions were reduced," said Gail D'Onofrio, his wife of 47 years. "He had a way of getting the point across."

D'Onofrio was president of WestSea Publishing, a company that he and other educators founded in the early 1980s to publish workbooks for high school students preparing for Regents math competency tests. He also worked as an adjunct professor at Hofstra University and as an educational consultant since retiring from the Seaford schools in 1994.

Outside work, D'Onofrio was involved with the James Street Players, a community theater group in Babylon, where he directed and acted in numerous plays from 1971 to 2005.

D'Onofrio is also survived by his son Paul, of Philadelphia, and daughter Caroline Calascibetta, of Lake Grove. He had four granddaughters and two grandsons.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for Tuesday starting at 9:45 a.m. at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Babylon.