Robert Valletta, longtime Newsday veteran, dies at 76

Former Newsday employee Robert Valletta, who worked for 46 years in Newsday's composing room and later its digital equivalent, died Dec. 21 at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson following a 14-year cancer battle that was complicated by recent illness from COVID-19 and pneumonia, his family said.

He was 76.

"He put the paper to bed," said Thomas Schiavone, manager of Newsday's prepress and digital output, using an old-school expression for the work that Valletta did. "He definitely was one of the veterans. Bobby definitely saw it all."

Valletta began working in Newsday's old composing room in 1966 when the job consisted of making negatives of each page of the newspaper and typesetting the pages. The product then went to the plate room and onto the presses. He saw Newsday's transition to a digital process using computers in the early 2000s.

"Bobby was one of the first people trained when we went into the digital era," said Schiavone. "A lot of guys didn't take to it well, but he worked real hard and he really got through it. Bobby was a real nice guy, he was always so easy going. He always had a smile on his face."

Robert Valletta was born on Oct. 1, 1947, in Brooklyn. His father, Michael, was a chemist and his mother, Carmella, did secretarial work. The middle child, he had two brothers — Michael, who preceded him in death, and Joseph.

When Robert was about 2 years old, the family moved to Elmont.

He worked as a busboy as a teenager and after graduating from Elmont High School, he began working at Newsday as an apprentice in the composing room on Jan. 3, 1966.

He retired on July 2, 2012, at age 64.

Valletta met his wife, Carol, on a blind date.

"My sister was going out with this guy who also worked at Newsday and said, 'I know someone you might like,' " Carol Valletta said. "He was very polite, very nice."

They married on Aug. 12, 1973. The couple initially lived in an apartment in Mineola, before settling in Selden.

An avid baseball fan, Robert Valletta coached his two sons in the sport.

"Growing up, he always coached me and my brother in baseball. He was the commissioner of the Little League," said son Rich Valletta. "He was always there coaching me. He even got me a tryout with the Long Island Ducks."

He was a fan of both New York Major League Baseball teams, but especially loved the Yankees, his wife said. He also played in Newsday's softball league.

"Robert loved baseball," said Carol Valletta. "Oh my God. He loved to watch it. He was a coach for the boys, when they were small. And he was even trying to help out my grandsons now. I have four grandsons. But when he got sick, it got harder to go. He said, 'I wish I could be coaching again.' He lived for his baseball."

Jack Millrod, the director of editorial technology at Newsday, who was one of the founders of the now-defunct softball league, recalled Valletta as an enthusiastic player.

"He was one of the good guys from the old composing room," said Millrod. "I remember specifically Bobby was a left-handed hitting first baseman. And I know that because he made a point of telling me that because I was the same. Just a sweet guy."

Valletta is survived by his wife, Carol Valletta, of Selden; sons Rich Valletta, of Shirley, and Robert Valletta, of Holland, Massachusetts; brother Joseph Valletta, of Warwick, New York; and four grandchildren.

Valletta is interred at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Coram.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.