Tuccio,+Joseph

Biographical Information:
Dates: 1917 -2008 Dates in Ridgefield: 1960 -2008 poetry poet, insurance agency owner, Nobel Prize nominee Joseph Tuccio lived on Point Lookout in Ridgefield for 40 years. Born in Italy–the oldest of five--his family immigrated to the United States in 1930. He learned to speak English and graduated valedictorian of his class from high school. He worked his way through Bowdoin University, graduating third in his class, and received a Master’s degree in English from Columbia University. Because he loved Italy, he refused to fight in World War II against his native country. Tuccio began an insurance company with his brothers in 1952, and in 1954 married Rita Stazi, a former Miss Italy, and in 1960 moved to Ridgefield. Throughout his life, poetry was his passion; he published over 10 books of poems and in 2007 he was nominated for a Nobel Prize in literature. He was also a regular contributor to //The Ridgefield Press// and other newspapers and magazines around the world. **Titles (partial): ** //Oregano and Other Poems //, 1983 //Noah and His Ark and Other Poems //, 1987  //Italy–Country of My Soul: Poems //, 1988  //Anyone Can Be a Genius: And Other Poems //, 2007  //Enough With Gods //, 2008 <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;">--Sources: [|www.acorn.net;] //Port Chester Westmore News//, obit August 8, 2008