William D'Ambrosia, Suffolk County court officer, dies at 64
William J D'Ambrosia, who went by Bill and lived in Ridge, died May 4 at East End Hospice Kanas Center in Quiogue at age 64. Credit: Courtesy Victoria Hernandez
When William D’Ambrosia, a Suffolk County court officer sickened from his post-9/11 work on the Ground Zero pile, was dying and couldn’t read or talk, his wife and daughters would read him passages from his favorite book: a dog-eared copy of “Tortilla Flat,” John Steinbeck’s 1935 novel of friends in postwar California enjoying life and drink.
D'Ambrosia, who went by Bill and lived in Ridge, died May 4 at East End Hospice Kanas Center in Quiogue at age 64, according to his youngest child, Victoria Hernandez of Miller Place. She said the cause was sarcoidosis associated with his work at Ground Zero. He first got sick in 2004 and the disease had spread to most of his internal organs and lymph nodes, she said.
He began work at the pile on Sept. 12, 2001 — searching for human remains, recovering evidence and transporting supplies — until about Oct. 15, according to Jeannie Kelly, a retired NYPD officer who also worked at Ground Zero and now works with the law firm Turken Heath & McCauley, which represented him.
As a court officer for 34 years, including in Riverhead and Hauppauge, his posts spanned traffic court, arraignments and criminal trials, Hernandez said. He was in the courtroom for matters mundane, famous and infamous, including the Amityville Horror trial — the 1974 murders by a 23-year-old who killed his own family while they slept — and the trial of Marty Tankleff, who was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for bludgeoning and stabbing his parents in their Belle Terre home in 1988 — and exonerated and freed in 2007.
While not on the job, Hernandez said of her mustachioed father, he was a sometimes goofy, yet serious-looking man, an avid Grateful Dead fan and also a voracious reader.
J.D. Salinger's “The Catcher in the Rye.” Hesse’s “Siddhartha.” Short stories by O. Henry. But also “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”
“He appreciated books that showcased people leading extraordinary lives with simple means,” the family said in an email.
His favorite part of the Bible is Psalm 23 of the Book of Psalms, the family said, “because he had great faith that the Lord was his shepherd.”
William Joseph D’Ambrosia was born in the Bronx, the second of four children, July 7, 1955, to the former Antionette Spano, a Suffolk County crossing guard, and Anthony D'Ambrosia, an Army veteran who was letter carrier and then a county police officer.
The couple, who were of Italian ancestry but born in the United States, moved to Long Island when the boy was 4 — his father wanted to move the family to the suburbs for a better life, Hernandez said — and was raised on Garden Lane in Centereach. He was a 1973 graduate of Port Jefferson High School.
He married the former Denise Obradovich in 1981. The two met through D’Ambrosia’s sister, Obradovich's best friend from high school.
His jobs included work at a department store, managing a landscaping firm and serving as captain of Brookhaven Town’s public safety agency.
A devout Roman Catholic, he attended Mass at St. Mark Church in Shoreham and St. John the Evangelist Church in Riverhead, he taught religion to teenagers, and was a member of the Blue Knights motorcycle club, and a religious men’s group.
In addition to his wife, his mother, and his daughter Victoria, he is survived by daughters Kristen D'Ambrosia and Dana Harbers, both of Ridge; two grandchildren; two brothers; and a sister.
Because of statewide coronavirus-related restrictions under the law, there is only a drive-by wake: Tuesday from noon to 4 p.m. at Coster-Heppner Funeral Home in Cutchogue. The funeral is Wednesday — to be attended by immediate family only, because of the virus restrictions. He is to be cremated that day at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Center Moriches, with his final resting place at St. John the Evangelist Parish Cemetery in Riverhead — one of the churches where he went to Mass. He was last there months ago before he was too sick to attend.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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