John and Charlotte
John Petriello, born July 14, 1920 in Maspeth, New York, was the sixth of 10 children. It was here he spent most of his childhood and attended Newton High School in Corona, Queens where he graduated valedictorian of his class. All during his younger years everyone called him “Doc” because he loved to carry on experiments with his chemical set in the basement. During this time in his life he found a passion for taking photographs after finding an old “box” camera in his father’s junk yard shop.
After grade school, John went on to the Pratt Institute where he graduated with his degree in chemical engineering. His first job out of college was working for an aluminum factory. It was here where he met Uncle Art (not blood related to the family but he may as well have been).
Art and John worked alongside each other at the factory and had always traded their personal stories with one another. After much discussion and coercion, Uncle Art convinced John to come home with him one night to visit a sweet young lady that lived at the residence in which he was boarding.
So, one night John proceeded to follow Art back to his place. As they stepped through the door John laid his eyes upon the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen, fully dressed in her night gown and curlers in one-half of her hair. It was from that moment on that John and Charlotte would spend the rest of their lives together.
Later in life he founded a small company called Diletrix which was located in Farmingdale, New York. John founded and patented a method of taking Dupont’s liquid Teflon into a film form. This invention was an instant success and was used in one of the very first kidney dialysis machines. Not long after this, his product was noticed by the National Aeronautical Space Administration and utilized in many applications such as moon bags and bladders during missions that ranged from Mercury to the Apollo.
John and Charlotte gave birth to two children; Kenneth Petriello was born January 14th 1949 and June Petriello was born September 8th 1953. During their childhood, they spent most of the time living in North Babylon and Huntington on Long Island.
In the early 80’s John sold Diletrix and retired. It was then that they decided to move down south to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida where they spent the rest of their years. While living in Palm Beach Gardens, John agreed to work for his brother-in-law’s company Turlon which developed Teflon film for many different applications.
Both John and Charlotte were devout Christians throughout their lives and attended St. Igantious Layola located in Palm Beach Gardens. After John’s brother-in-law Mike sold the business to Chem Fab, John and Charlotte became very active in volunteer work for the church and the local soup kitchen. He also served as an usher for the church.
All throughout John and Charlotte’s life they came to put a smile on many people’s faces. It was hard to be around them and not feel uplifted by their positive outlook on the world. They loved treating others with their never ending hospitality and would always welcome anyone into their lives.
John passed away in 1997 and Charlotte in 2003… but their memories will never be forgotten.