Vincent America Mainiero

Vincent America Mainiero, age 89, of Milford, husband of Elizabeth Long Mainiero, died on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.  The son of the late Vincent and Grace DelVecchio Mainiero, he was born on March 29, 1931 in Bridgeport.  Upon graduating from Tufts University, Medford, MA in 1953, after one year of training, he served as an undercover agent for the Army Counter Intelligence Corps in Hokkaido, Japan for two years.  He was one of the three founders of The Trumbull Times newspaper, worked in public relations, and retired at the age of 57 as a Senior Civil Rights Investigator for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights.  He was co-founder of the Cursillo Movement of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport and co-founder and first president of the College Graduates Club of Bridgeport.  He belonged to the Milford Yacht Club for 15 years.  He was a member of the Bridgeport Area Cultural Italian Organization, the Bridgeport Community Historical Society and the Lifetime Learners of Norwalk and Stratford.  Vin and his wife, Beth, the retired director of the Greenwich, CT Library, visited over 80 foreign countries, including a trip to Antarctica where they romped on the land with penguins, and five trips to Italy because he spoke Italian fluently. He visited his Italian ancestral town and house three times.  Vin and his wife traveled to Iceland, Robinson Crusoe, Easter and the Galapagos Islands; cruised the Amazon, Rhine, Nile, Danube and France’s Saone, Rhone and Seine Rivers, the fjords of Norway into the Arctic Circle to the Russian border and multiple cruises to the Caribbean.  Because of his three photo safaris in Africa (Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Tanzania), he was a supporter of the African Wildlife Foundation, Back to Africa, the World Wildlife Fund and the National Wildlife Federation.  In 2009, he and his wife were featured on a CBS network program on civil rights: he as a retired civil rights investigator and she for having desegregated the Martinsville, VA library while she was its director.  In October 2011, he and his wife were selected by Pueblo Ingles, an English language immersion program for Spanish business people, to attend an all-expenses-paid 8-daysession in Spain coaching Spaniards in conversational English.  In addition to his wife, he is survived by his step-children, their spouses and their children: H. Morrow Long and his wife Amy, and Benjamin, Ethan and Michaela of Hamden, Lisa Hothem Mendis and her husband, David Mendis, and Daniel and Riley Hothem, Katherine and Martha Mendis of Arlington, VA, Bonnie Gorman and her husband Dr. Bryan Gorman, and Liam and Colin of Laurel, MD, Kimmo Long and his wife, Najla Alrawan, and Yasmina of Columbia, MD, four generations of nieces and nephews.  He was predeceased by sisters; Teodolinda Giordano, Eleanora Rovello, Dolores Pellegrino, Ann Mathews and Angelina Scinto, and brothers, Joseph, Mario and Anthony Mainiero.  The youngest of nine children, he was born in St. Vincent Hospital, Bridgeport, (hence his first name) whereas all his siblings were born in Italy because, although his father was a naturalized American citizen. While living in Italy, his father was forcibly drafted into the Italian Army in World War I, was gassed and a prisoner of war.  Having served in a foreign army, he lost his American citizenship.  It took his father 25 years to get back into the United States with Vin’s siblings.  In gratitude, his father added America as Vin’s middle name.  A memorial service for Vin may be held at a later date.  Burial will be in his wife’s family plot in Druid Ridge Cemetery, Baltimore MD.  In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his name to the Yale Cancer Center, PO BOX 208028, New Haven, CT 06520 for cancer research.  

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