Robert Joseph Florentino, 91, died peacefully at Newport Hospital on April 27 after a brief illness. He was predeceased by his wife of 60 years, Paula (Tierney) Florentino. He was the son of the late Frank G. and Regina (Quinn) Florentino, and the brother of Gregory Florentino and the late Francis Florentino and Jeanne Keane.
Raised in Floral Park, Long Island, Bob graduated from Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn, New York where he was part of the championship track team who were featured in Life Magazine in May, 1945.
In 1950 he earned a degree in Economics from Yale University which he attended under the GI Bill after serving in the Army Counterintelligence Corps in Na-goya, Japan.
Bob spent his career on Wall Street. Hired by Hornblower & Weeks Hemphill, Noyes immediately after college, he was named a general partner in 1969.
He served as Manager of Horn-blower offices on both Madison and Third Avenues. Bob remained with the firm throughout his career and a number of acquisitions and mergers, retiring in 1992 from Shearson Lehman Hutton.
While his work was extremely important to him, his true vocation was serving others, resulting in a long history of visionary involvement in organizations that directly impacted those in need. While raising his family in Port Washington, Bob was involved with the Port Washington Community Action Council, Port Washington Community Services, The Community Chest of Port Washington and was a founding member of Landmark on Main Street, a project that converted an historic elementary school into affordable housing for seniors.
From 1969 through the early 1970s Bob spent most Saturdays with his hands and heart immersed in leading a group of adults and teens from Port Washington working side-by-side with residents of Spanish Harlem renovating tenement buildings which would ultimately be owned by those residents. For more than 25 years, Bob was also deeply dedicated to his work with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul offering person-to-person service for individuals in need.
In recognition of their enormous dedication to others Bob and Paula were together named Citizens of the Year in Port Washington in 1989.
After retiring from Shearson, Bob and Paula moved to Newport, RI, and later to Jamestown, RI, in 2003. During retirement Bob continued to swim almost daily, a ritual that he started decades earlier.
In Rhode Island, Bob continued his community involvement as a member of the finance and bereavement committees and the choir of St. Mary’s Church in Newport. In Jamestown, he was a proud member of the Jamestown Community Chorus.
In addition to his brother, he is survived by his four children and their spouses; Katherine and Ed Carroll of Milford, CT, Jane and Joe Kringdon, of Hingham, MA, Anthony and Laura Florentino of Columbus, OH, and Sally and Peter Schott of Jamestown, RI, and by 13 grandchildren; Melissa and Jennifer Carroll, Molly, Jake and Peter Kringdon, Jesse, Samuel and Daniel Florentino, Emily, William and John Schott, and Max and Zoey Bathje, all of whom will aspire to carry on their father and grandfather’s legacy of service. Many admiring nieces, nephews and cousins also survive him.
At his request, his body has been donated to the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
A memorial mass will be held on Friday May 25th, 2018 at 11 a.m. at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Newport, RI.
Contributions in Bob’s name can be made to The Society of Saint Vincent De Paul of St. Peter of Alcantara Church, 1321 Port Washington Blvd., Port Washington, NY, 11050, or the The Community Chest of Port Washington at www.portchest.org.
