Erasmo “Roger” Catanzaro, age 83 years, of Raritan Township, NJ, died peacefully at home on Sunday, July 28, 2024, surrounded by his loving family and under the caring watch of Hunterdon Hospice.
Erasmo was born in Tunis, Tunisia, February 20, 1941, son of the late Antonino and Margherita Tammurello Catanzaro. An Italian citizen, he moved back to his original boyhood home in Castellammare, Italy, after the war was over in 1945. He would spend the next decade in Italy, learning customs and especially recipes for the most amazing food, that would carry him throughout his entire life.
In 1955, Erasmo emigrated to the United States with his parents, settling on 12th Street in Newark, NJ. He attended West Side High School, leaving school in his senior year to help support the family when his father became ill. First working by sanding floors, he would later learn his trade as a barber and hairstylist.
It was during his work at “Miss Haircut” in Newark, where in 1962, a young Ms. Annie McEnroe would come in to have her hair coiffed. The pair would strike up a conversation and a year later, in July of 1963, would become engaged. They married on October 4, 1964, and made their first home in Irvington, NJ.
1968 would see the young couple purchase their first house in Cranford, NJ, and eight years later they would move to Millington, NJ, where they would raise their daughter and two sons, and live for the next thirty-two years when they moved to Raritan Township.
Erasmo was a talented hairdresser and barber, owning both Golden Touch Coiffures in Springfield, NJ, from 1970-1980, and Classics Haircutters and Stylists in Gillette, NJ, from 1983-2000, whereupon he retired to spend time enjoying his various hobbies and spending more time with family and friends.
An avid outdoorsmen, he had a passion for upland game hunting and training hunting dogs, especially his English Settlers. He was a detailed Gardner, with both vegetables and landscape ornamental plants adorning his yard. Tomatoes and almost every type of summer vegetable were lovingly gifted each year to everyone and anyone he met, and he would guarantee that they would be the tastiest of the season that could be found anywhere!
He also greatly enjoyed both fresh and saltwater fishing. Striped bass and trout were among his favorites, and many a peaceful moment was found on the shores of Round Valley Reservoir where Erasmo could be seen catching way more on land than anyone on a boat in the middle of the reservoir.
The outdoors also saw him shooting trap and skeet often, and he had numerous 1st place trophies to his name from a plethora of competitions. He was a longtime member of Thunder Mountain Trap & Skeet, and also of Winchester Gun Club, Englishtown, NJ.
A true “Renaissance Man”, in the 1950’s, Erasmo found a deep passion for oil painting and metal gun engraving. This amazingly detailed craft would continue throughout his life and deep into his eighties, he rediscovered his joy for the arts and made numerous beautiful landscapes and portraits. He would create a beautiful aquarium painting which was then donated and sits inside the Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center, helping to brighten the day for all who pass by and see its beauty.
This unique and memorable larger than life character, with his witty one-liners, will be forever remembered by all who knew him. An avid cook, his homemade pizza and clam chowder were legendary, as was the love with which he made them and the leftovers he made you take as no one left his home empty-handed.
Though he will be missed, Erasmo would want all reading this to remember that, “Who has time, doesn’t wait for time!”, a reminder that we should all never wait to live each day to the fullest.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by two brothers, Vincenzo Catanzaro and Melchiorre Catanzaro.
Surviving are his wife, Annie Catanzaro; his daughter and son-in-law, Margaret Anne and Roger Adams Neff Jr.; his oldest son and daughter-in-law, Anthony Joseph and Amber Marie Catanzaro, and youngest son, Roger Erasmo Catanzaro; his grandchildren, Sara Morgan and her husband, Adam Robert Buchma, Roger Adams Neff, III, Ryanne Michele Catanzaro, Jessica Lynn Catanzaro, and Peyton Nicole Catanzaro; several extended family members; and many dear friends.
Erasmo will lie in repose on Thursday, August 1, 2024, from 10:00-11:00 a.m. in the Chapel of Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 38 State Highway 31, Flemington, NJ.
A Life Celebration Service officiated by Certified Life Celebrant D.J. Wright, along with reflections from family and friends, will follow the gathering beginning at 11:00 a.m.
Burial in the family plot will follow at St. Magdalen Cemetery, North Main Street, Flemington, NJ, and again, all are welcome.
You are encouraged to visit Erasmo’s permanent life celebration site at www.wrightfamily.com.
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