Gary Edward Dietz
February 28, 1952—December 29, 2022
Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY
Gary Edward Dietz passed away Saturday, December 29, 2022 at home. Gary was born February 28, 1952 in Cornwall-on Hudson, New York the son of Edward and Alice (Cavanaugh) Dietz. Gary graduated from Cornwall Central High School and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from SUNY – New Paltz in 1975. Gary served his career as a lay professional in the Episcopal Church, specializing in Youth Ministry, specifically with teenagers. Beginning in 1975 with seven churches on Staten Island, NY, then sixty churches in the Hudson River valley, he worked connecting teenagers with each other and adults volunteers, building their faith and church communities. He orchestrated mission projects and youth events. He trained adults to do the same, and had a gift that made each person he was with feel like the most important person in the room. In 1983 Gary was recruited by St. Stephens Episcopal church in Edina, MN where he built a youth program for 6-12th grade students that spanned 31 years. He met his wife, Marjory there and they were married there in 1988. During his career Gary lead groups to do mission projects locally, nationally and internationally. He loved exposing teenagers to a way of life different from their own – not only their homes, but their culture and cuisine. Gary leaves his passion for food, wine and hospitality with all who’ve ever known him. In addition to parish ministry, Gary initiated a TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) interdenominational semi-annual retreat. TEC was run by teenagers for teenagers, involving up to 200 of them and 50 adult volunteers, more than half of who were formerly in Gary’s youth program. Upon retirement, he and Marjory moved to Kalamazoo MI, and he served as a Director on his condominium board. Together they enjoyed biking, hiking, and exploring the area. They also enjoyed many trips to new wine regions and upon return, sharing those hospitality skills with friends, family and neighbors. He was united in marriage to Marjory Allen on June 4, 1988 in Edina Minnesota. Surviving are a brother, Wayne (Elizabeth) Dietz and Brother-in-Law David (Rhonda) Allen; nephews Mathew and Tyler (Emily) Allen; niece Jennifer (Kyle) Middaugh; and several great nieces & nephews. Contributions may be made to St. Stephen’s Church in Edina, MN or to Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes. www.redmondfuneralhomes.net
Dr. Ross Andrew Gagliano
July 3, 1938 – December 23, 2022
Decatur, GA formerly Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY
Rosario (Ross) Gagliano, a former resident of Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY entered into eternal rest on December 23, 2022 in Plano, TX. He was 84 years old. Born July 3, 1938 in Birmingham, AL, he is predeceased by his parents, Saverio (Sam) and Lucy (Musso) Gagliano and his loving and devoted wife, Dorothy Ann (Petry) Gagliano who shared fifty wonderful years with him and departed nine years and twenty days ahead of him. Their deep and abiding love for one another and for their Lord Jesus Christ our Savior ensures they are reunited in Heaven. He is also predeceased by his sister Lucy Elizabeth (Gagliano) Haynes and his son-in-law from Memphis, TN, Mark Alan Ricketts, who recently lost a brief, heroic battle with ALS in Parker, TX.
An older brother to three siblings he adored, Ross is survived by Carl Samuel (“Sticks”) and Virginia (Durden) Gagliano, of Auburn, AL, Sam Emidio, Jr. (“Little Star”) and Judy (Ross) Gagliano, of Birmingham, and brother-in-law Ronald “Ronnie” Haynes, of Mobile, AL. His other “little sister” and beloved wife’s sibling, Susan (Petry) Ray, resides in Newborn, GA.
Ross is also survived by three children who loved him desperately: James Andrew and wife Tiffany Nicole (Reis) Gagliano of Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, Lisa (Gagliano) Ricketts of Parker, TX, and Jonathan Ross and wife Wendy Lynne (McCay) Gagliano, also of Birmingham, AL.
Poppa dearly loved and doted on his eleven grandchildren (in birth order): Kristen Leigh Brinkley (husband John), U.S. Army Captain Zachary Ross and his wife, First Lieutenant Mary (Thompson) Ricketts, Anthony James Gagliano (fiancé Brianna Cazorla), Dr. Erin Ann Ricketts, DVM, Alexandra Leigh (Gagliano) Arduino and husband Kevin, Christopher Jason Park, James (Jae) Samuel and wife Katelyn Nicole (Klug) Ricketts, Jenna Blake Park, Claire Ellen Ricketts, Kaitlin Ann Gagliano, and Avery Anna-Elizabeth Martin.
His legacy includes God’s blessing of twelve great-grandchildren — between the tender ages of seventeen (Wini) and Dominic (eight months). He met each of them and loved them all dearly.
Ross, a “child of the Great Depression” as his wife, “Dorothy Margaret,” sweetly referred to him, was also known growing up as “Little Ross” (named after his Poppa) and “Goose” — for his basketball prowess. He attended high school at Birmingham’s John Herbert Phillips High School, graduating in 1956. He then received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, where he graduated near top of his class in 1960, serving as Brigade Sergeant Major his senior (firstie) year. Well-respected and universally liked by his classmates, he was known as “Garp,” singing in the Cadet Glee Club, and playing center on Cadet basketball team – where he once held Academy’s single game record for rebounds (22, against the Coast Guard Academy).
Commissioned as a U.S. Army Officer and branched into the Signal Corps, he met the love of his life, Dorothy, while stationed in Fontenet, France, where her father, Francis J. Petry, a World War II and Korean Conflict combat veteran was stationed. They were married in the French city of Poitiers on April 27, 1963. Ross then spent the balance of his eleven-year military career securing a Master’s degree at the Naval Post Graduate School at Ft. Ord (where James and Lisa were born), serving a combat tour in Vietnam between 1966-1967, and closing out his Army chapter while posted to West Point in 1967 as Professor of Mathematics (where Jonathan born), when he purchased a home on Payson Road in the Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY. In the Summer of 1971, a new civilian, he piled his family into a station wagon and headed south.
Settling in Decatur, GA, this served as his family’s home base for 48 years and where he and Dorothy raised their three children, while he earned a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech, concurrently conducting research and teaching graduate students for fifteen years. In 1985, he made the difficult decision to transition to Georgia State University (GSU), helping “birth” and evolve the fledgling Computer Science department – which some, he recalled, thought a “passing fad.”
He retired from GSU in 2000, devoting himself to his wife and a lengthy “Honey Do List,” and the singular quest to chronicle his beloved father’s life and times. Several years of research and writing, a labor of love, led to the self-publishing of “A Symmetry of Spirit,” an ancestral devotional to his Sicilian heritage and his family’s Southern roots, viewed through the eyes of his father, Sam, a figure he revered and described as “an ordinary man who did some extraordinary things.” His Dad, Sam Gagliano, known as “Professor” to legions of Alabama piano students and marching band members he guided across the years (Leeds High School, for one), also proudly served as assistant director of the 140th Army band of the Alabama National Guard.
His Roman Catholic faith was very important to Ross. He and his wife (a convert) were devoted Catholics, guided and instructed by their faith, and longtime members of Saints Peter and Paul R.C. Church and St. Thomas More R.C. Church – both located in Decatur, GA. This faith sustained him through Dorothy’s difficult health journey following a breast cancer diagnosis in 1998. Her brief recovery and rebound were God’s blessing. But the difficult and unexpected sudden loss of his wife in 2013 didn’t result in a wavering of faith. His trust in God unshakable.
Ross will forever be known as a committed patriot, passionate Catholic, defender of the American values he cherished, and fierce protector of his brood. Whether you knew him well or you met him by happenstance, he would give you the shirt off his back. This isn’t folklore. It’s how he lived his life — a life of selflessness. His epitaph is simple: He was a damn good man.
The family will receive friends at the following visitation, Rosary, and funeral services: Visitation is Thursday, January 12, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church, 2 Xavier Circle, Birmingham, AL 35213, followed by Rosary at 6:30 p.m. Funeral Mass will be celebrated following morning, Friday, January 13, at St. Francis Xavier at 9:00 a.m., with inurnment at Elmwood Cemetery, 600 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Birmingham, AL 35211.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, Ross would have much preferred you “pay it forward” by making a donation to either the American Cancer Society or the ALS Association in his memory and in keeping with his penchant for charitable works and helping support those in need.