Obituary of Frank V. Ozello

Frank Ozello, of Staten Island and later New Jersey, died on June 19, 2026, at Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey, after a brief illness. He was 73 years old, and every room he walked into has been a little quieter since.

Frank was born on September 16, 1952, on Staten Island, to Anthony and Rose “Sadie” Ozello. He attended New Dorp High School, and from boyhood he was crazy about baseball, a love that stayed with him the rest of his life.

Janice was literally the ‘girl next door’ and the two grew-up side-by-side.  Janice and Frank knew each other nearly their entire lives, and Frank found his wife one door away. They married in 1979.

He served in the New York Army National Guard, and over the years he worked for the United States Postal Service and for New York City Sanitation, where he rose to a supervisor at the Fresh Kills facility on Staten Island. In the months after September 11, 2001, he was among at the World Trade Center Site – NYC and at the Fresh Kills facility.  He retired in 2007.

Retirement suited Frank, because it gave him more time for the things and the people he loved. For years he umpired high school and Little League baseball, and the local baseball community came to respect and adore him, players, coaches, and parents alike. But the game was only part of it. He gave himself fully to his family and to an enormous circle of friends, some from childhood and many gathered along the way, all of whom he simply called family. And in his last years, no one delighted him more than his grandchildren.

Frank was a hilarious ball buster, the kind of man who could roast you and make you feel like family in the same breath. He was the life of every party, the one keeping the jokes coming and the laughter going, and he was loved by just about everyone who ever met him.

He was a devoted sports fan with a real passion for horse racing, and the family loved to tease him about his devotion to the dog races down in Florida. He loved his movies and his TV shows. And he had a lifelong soft spot for the casino, a romance with Atlantic City that left behind two decades of free gifts as proof: toasters, coffee pots, garage spotlights, the whole catalog.

But to know Frank was to eat well. He was a foodie before the word existed, with a flawless memory for every restaurant he had ever eaten at and exactly what he had ordered there, and he was always up to “take a ride” for a new place no matter how far the drive. He loved to eat out, and he loved to feed people even more. A visit to his house opened with a “first course” that was secretly eight courses of its own, antipasto, chips, dips, salsas, and even candies, and closed with a dessert that refused to quit: coffee, cakes, cookies, and then, because dessert deserves a dessert, fruit. His worst-kept secret was his bartending. He was the designated drink-maker at every family gathering, always with a loving and generous hand. He welcomed you through his door so warmly you would have sworn the whole party had been waiting just for you, and he was endlessly, almost helplessly generous with everyone he loved.

Frank is survived by his wife, Janice Leone; his daughter, Lauren Ozello, and her husband, Danny Rodriguez; his son, Frank Ozello, and his wife, Krystina Smith; his grandchildren, Daniel Vincent Rodriguez, Liana Rose Rodriguez, and Angelina Lisa Ozello; and his brother, Anthony Ozello. He was predeceased by his parents, Anthony and Rose “Sadie” Ozello.

Visitation will be held at the Clayton & McGirr Funeral Home, 100 Elton-Adelphia Road (Route 524), Freehold Township on Wednesday, June 24, 2026 from 3:00 to 7:00 PM. Interment will be private. For information, directions or to leave condolence messages for the family, please visit www.claytonfuneralhome.com