Public library dedicates room to beloved longtime educator
July 17, 2024 at 11:15 p.m.
When Joann Ponterio looked around the children’s section of the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library, she was full of mixed emotions.
She, along with other members of her family, were invited by the Library Board of Trustees to commemorate her late husband, Bruno, who died Mar. 7. A ceremony was held on Tuesday, July 16, to rename the teen room in the children’s section to the Bruno M. Ponterio Memorial Room—a dedication to a man well known in the Rye Brook and Port Chester communities.
The room, located on the upper floor, is marked with a plaque displaying its new name over a window. Through the glass, a photo of a smiling Bruno Ponterio can be seen watching over the door. Inside, a handful of computers and two bookshelves of books on a variety of subjects are available for library-goers to use.
“It certainly makes me a little sad because I miss him so much,” Joann said after the event. “But I’m very happy that they thought enough of him to do that.”
The late educator spent most of his career at the Blind Brook School District’s Ridge Street Elementary School, where he served as principal from 1970-1995. After his retirement, the building was named for him.
He also spent 40 years on the library board, joining in 1982.
“Bruno was always interested in this place. He was always committed to the community,” Joann said. “I think it was because of the children who came here. He was just so dedicated to them.”
David Ponterio, Bruno’s son who teaches in the Ardsley School District, and his daughter Ella peruse one of the books the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library Board purchased to honor the deceased local figure.By David Tapia
According to Library Director Robin Lettieri, Ponterio played a hand in several aspects of the library’s operation.
“He was on the finance, personnel and planning committees,” she explained. “He was a real advocate for the library. He was supportive of me, the staff and the community.”
Veronica “Roni” O’Connor, president of the library board, echoed the sentiment that Ponterio was one of the library’s hardest workers.
“Bruno was actively engaged in the work of the board,” she said. “No matter what committee he served on, he was always actively engaged and participated.”
She added that while Ponterio was deeply involved with the library, he was just as invested in the education of the youth.
“Bruno was devoted to teaching children,” she said. “Whether he was in the classroom or as an administrator, he instilled a love of learning in his students.”
But that proclivity wasn’t limited to children he interacted with while working—he did the same with his family.
His children, David Ponterio, Marisa Howard and Lauren Karp, all remembered spending their childhoods in the library during their early years in Rye Brook as their father would take them to events and board meetings.
“He brought us here all the time as kids,” Karp said. “I remember coming here for summer reading and other programs.”
“Our grandfather instilled a love of reading in all of us,” Lauren Howard said. She recalled a time Bruno had taken her out when she was a little girl with the intention of buying a toy, which ended with the two reading together at a bookstore.
“So, this would mean so much to him, that he has a room dedicated to helping little kids learn to love to read,” Lauren said.
In addition to naming a room for Ponterio, the board also purchased several books to place in the library in his honor.
“They’re all about things his wife said that he liked,” Board Vice President Paul Zaccagnino explained. “And we felt that some children could have an interest in them as well.”
The new titles cover space, nature and history—the latter which Joann said her husband had a strong enthusiasm for.
While the ceremony was focused on Bruno’s devotion to education and the library, his family and friends also spent the evening remembering his character by sharing their experiences with him.
Bruno Ponterio speaks during the ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly refurbished Ridge Street School, a building that was named for him in 1995, in January 2023.By Sarah Wolpoff
“Bruno was one of the kindest, warmest and most caring people I have ever met or will ever meet,” Trustee Barbara Goodstein said.
She added that Ponterio, who served as her children’s principal 30 years ago, would ask about them every time they met.
“And that just touched my heart every time he did that,” she said.
Trustee and former Port Chester Mayor Fritz Falanka said Ponterio would call him frequently while he was in office to check in on him.
“He would call and ask, ‘How are you doing? Don’t let them get to you,” he laughed. “And I would always just wait for that call. He was quite a guy.”
Lisa Simon, treasurer of the board, said working alongside Ponterio was an honor, but joked it could prove difficult when it came to technology.
“I’d frequently have conversations with Bruno, and he’d tell me he couldn’t open a file that somehow everyone else could,” she said, drawing laughs from attendees. “I miss him very much as both a member of the library board and as a friend.”
His son, David, said those kinds of moments were in line with who his father was as a person.
“The only thing that really mattered to my dad was people,” he said. “He didn’t care about materialistic things or money. He just cared about people. And that’s why he’s so loved.”
As Joann took in how much the library had changed over the years, she reflected on how Bruno would have felt if he’d seen a piece of it named for him.
“I think he would have been so touched,” she said. “He would have seen it as such an honor after he spent so long here.”
O’Connor said rechristening the teen room was the best way to honor Bruno’s work with the library and his passion for education.
“It’s fitting that we’re dedicating this room to him,” she said. “This room is filled with books and computers, which are tools with which children learn.”
“That would have meant so much to him,” Ella Ponterio, his granddaughter, said. “This place really meant so much to him, he talked about it all the time. It really means a lot to the whole family to see this.”
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