Richard Cardinali, lifelong Villager who ran a deli on Sullivan St., 87

Richard Cardinali, lifelong Villager

who ran a deli on Sullivan St., 87

Richard Cardinali, a lifelong Villager who ran a family-owned delicatessen on Sullivan St. for many years, died at home on Mon. Sept. 1 of heart disease at the age of 87.

Born the fifth of six children in the Village to David and Maria Cardinali, immigrants from Tarsogno, Italy, he attended public schools in the Village before going to De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx. Given the name of Italo Simone Cardinali, he used the name Richard all his life.

Soon after graduating from high school he went to work for the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C., according to his son, Richard.

He returned to the Village around 1941 and worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II. In 1942 he married Marion Gardella, Village born and bred. They lived for 50 years on Carmine St., where they raised their son and daughter. His wife died in 2001.

With his brother Bobby, Richard joined Cardinali’s Delicatessen, 137 Sullivan St., in the mid-1940s, a business founded in 1917 by their father. The business was sold 20 years ago and a restaurant now occupies the site.

Active in civic life, he was president as a young man of the Young Democrats Club in the Village. He was also a Grand Knight of the Knickerbocker Council of the Knights of Columbus and was active in the Parent Teachers Association of Our Lady of Pompeii School.

In 1987, the William Church Osborn Club of the Children’s Aid Society honored Richard Cardinali and his brother as Men of the Year. The club supports and raises funds for Children’s Aid.

His son, Richard, and daughter, Judy Pozzi, and his brother survive. Perazzo Funeral Home, 199 Bleecker St., was in charge of arrangements. The funeral was Sept. 5 at Our Lady of Pompeii Church and burial was in Calvary Cemetery, Queens.