Perry DeLalio Sr. Of Southampton Dies February 11

Pierre “Perry” DeLalio Sr. of Southampton, a longtime champion of the agricultural industry, a real estate broker and former owner of Southampton Coal & Produce, died on February 11 at the age of 93.

This week, his family remembered him not only for his myriad business endeavors, but also for his love for baseball, his sense of humor, and the thoughtful way he would give advice.

“He was a gentleman throughout his life,” said his son, Perry Jr. “He loved baseball. He was a devoted Yankees fan, watched all the games. He was a father and he was a friend. And I think that’s the easiest thing that you could say.”

Born on January 9, 1923, on a small farm in Greenlawn to farmers Pierre and Mae DeLalio, Mr. DeLalio kept close to his agricultural roots and worked with his father on the family farm after graduating from Boys High School in Brooklyn in 1941. He married Eileen Brand, a neighboring farmer’s daughter, in 1947, and together they had two children, Perry Jr. and Gary.

Once the farm was sold for development in 1954, Mr. DeLalio moved on to the nursery business, eventually receiving awards for growing the best chrysanthemums in New York State. His flowers were also planted along Park Avenue in New York City for two years during that decade.

When the Bethpage Rotary was founded in 1957, Mr. DeLalio’s love for the service organization began. He was a member of that charter and served as its president from 1958 to 1959, and boasted 40 years of perfect attendance at meetings. Combined with his membership in Southampton Rotary, which he joined after moving to the South Fork in the late 1970s, he served in the organization for more than 60 years.

Mr. DeLalio entered the commercial real estate business in Levittown once the family’s nursery was sold in the early 1960s. The younger Mr. DeLalio said his father succeeded as a broker because of his ties to the farming industry—farmers owned most of the land, and they trusted him, so they sought his help in selling and buying parcels throughout Long Island.

But all of his work didn’t keep him from pursuing philanthropic efforts.

Mr. DeLalio served on numerous boards for the Boy Scouts of America and became an active member of the Holy Name Society, Knights of Columbus and the Bethpage Fire Department Rescue Company. As a member of the fire department’s rescue company in rural Nassau County, he often helped deliver children whose mothers could not make it to the hospital, and later in life he received Christmas cards from those families.

In 1974 Mr. DeLalio purchased Southampton Coal & Produce, and he moved to the village a few years later, immersing himself in that industry as a board member for the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island.

After nearly 15 years of leading the company, Mr. DeLalio hung up his business hat and retired in 1988. But he continued his philanthropic work with the Southampton Rotary, Our Lady of the Hamptons Regional Catholic School and the parish council of Our Lady of Poland Church. He also founded the Zero Club, an organization for retired business people that met monthly for lunch. Its motto, “No name, no dues, and no rules,” was a testament to the “lighthearted conviviality” Mr. DeLalio embodied, his family said.

His granddaughter, Elizabeth Sanicola, said she will remember him for his sense of humor, and the drive and determination he possessed.

“When we were kids, we would stay over their house a lot and he would tell us stories. We were always working on some type of project. His whole life was about teaching,” she said. “He would just go on and on about great stories about all the things that he went through.

“We all live out here, we work out here, in large part because we have such a tight bond because of the family he built,” she added.

His daughter-in-law, Sarah DeLalio, said that he was more a father figure to her than anything, especially because her own father is across the pond in Ireland, where she was born.

“He became my father rather than my father-in-law. He treated me as a daughter,” she said. “We loved him to death because he was just that kind of person. He adopted me into his family and into his heart.”

Mr. DeLalio is predeceased by his wife, Eileen, who died in 2007. He is survived by a sister, Lynn Bagli and husband Frank; two sons, Perry DeLalio Jr. and wife Sarah, and Gary DeLalio. He is also survived by five grandchildren: Perry DeLalio III and wife Jen; Elizabeth Sanicola and husband Joe; Katherine Turza and husband Brian; Michael DeLalio and wife Keri; Thomas DeLalio, and nine great-grandchildren.

Services will be at Brockett Funeral Home on Hampton Road in Southampton on Friday, February 19, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, February 20, at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Poland Church; interment will follow at Sacred Hearts Cemetery in Southampton.

Memorial donations may be made to Our Lady of the Hamptons Regional Catholic School, 160 North Main Street, Southampton, NY 11968, or the Dominican Sisters Family Health Services, 103-6 West Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays, NY 11946, or East End Hospice, Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978.