'Mr. Democrat' Set To Mark His 70th Birthday
Staten Island Advance 7/5/09
Staten
Island is invited," said Sollazzo, his smile wide.
So far, more than 1,000 invites have gone out via flier and e-mail to his legion of admirers in the Fire Department, Democratic Party and the numerous civic endeavors he is involved in.
It's the least his friends can do, reasons one of his FDNY buddies, Paul Cinquemani, who is helping to throw the bash: "John has always looked out for the other guy, to try to make the other person's life better, easier for them."
That philosophy is pure Sollazzo.
Growing up in Mariners Harbor, in the house his father built, he was known as the "mayor" of PS 22. Later, at Port Richmond High School, he worked with a dean of students to help turn around some of the tough guys there, instituting a "Beau Brummell Day."
"Everyone wore dungarees then, too," Sollazzo explained, "except on that day you'd wear a shirt and a tie, a jacket and sports pants. That inspired the young ladies to have a Belle Brummell Day."
He played baseball at Port Richmond High -- "I'm a Yogi Berra kind of guy," he said of his days as a catcher -- and worked for the family business, the Forest Oil Co., Graniteville.
"I love production," said Sollazzo recently over lunch at the Elm Park Inn. "They'd tell me to make 20 stops, I'd make them, I'd wipe them out, then do 20 more. I got to know the houses so well that I could drive down the street and know how much each house had. In the summers, I'd paint the trucks."
After he graduated, he enlisted in the Navy, serving on the USS Intrepid and spending time in the Mediterranean. It was on a leave home that he met his future wife, the former Frances Adamo, falling for her instantly. Now married 48 years, the Castleton Corners couple has three children and five grandkids.
Careers in plumbing -- he'll tell you he's retired, but he's not -- and with the FDNY followed. And with it, union leadership stints, including the prestigious post of president of the United Retired Firefighters Association. He tears up remembering how, on 9/11, he rushed to his old engine company, 160, in Concord, gear in hand, ready to serve once again.
Through it all, Sollazzo has been heart-and-soul involved in Democratic Party politics, organizing clubs, boosting membership, running campaigns, attending presidential conventions and serving on lawmakers' staffs, culminating in three runs to become Mid-Island city councilman in the 1990s.
"I lost," said Sollazzo, "but I kept my head up."
Today, he is first vice chairman of the Democratic Party and still relishes going door-to-door to collect petition signatures, setting daily goals for himself as he did on those long-ago oil deliveries: "Two sheets every day, and that brings me to almost a thousand signatures."
"He is Mr. Democrat," said Rep. Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn). "The reason he is called Mr. Democrat is because, through the decades, he has been a tireless foot soldier and leader of the Democratic troops in dozens of elections. He brings a passion and people skills that are, unfortunately, becoming a lost art."
Said Democratic chairman John Gulino: "He's the real deal. Outside the party, I know him 40 years. I love him like a brother. Within the party, he is a tremendous asset. He makes the party run. He's Mr. Democrat."
A heart attack awhile back slowed him down, but not for long. The other day at lunch, he stuck to salad and unsweetened iced tea, stopping to take one cell phone after another: He listened, he cajoled, he dispensed advice.
Explained Sollazzo: "At the end
of the day I am very tired because of all I have done. But when
I put my head down and go to sleep, I sleep in peace."
Judy L. Randall is a news reporter for the Advance. She can be
reached at randall@siadvance.com
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