Peter Thomas Colli

Peter (Pete) Thomas Colli, age 90, died peacefully on March 23, 2026 surrounded by his family, after a brief illness. He was a 60-year resident of Haworth, New Jersey and a 56-year summer resident of Cushing Island, Maine. Pete lived a long and active life full of love, family, friends, faith, and integrity. Pete was born at Royal Hospital in the Bronx, spending his first six years there before moving with his family (Thomas Edward Colli and Josephine Scuitti Colli) to Bergenfield, New Jersey. His younger brother Tom was born in 1941. Pete attended Bergenfield public schools graduating from Bergenfield High School in 1954. He was an outstanding athlete earning three varsity letters in Football, Basketball, and Track. In 1954, He received the BHS William R. Zuegel Memorial Award for outstanding leadership and sportsmanship. In 2018, he was inducted into the BHS Athletics Hall of Fame. He kept in close contact with his BHS classmates and friends throughout his life. He faithfully attended several reunions (including his 70th) and organized BHS luncheons for his classmates in his later years. Pete attended the University of Vermont and graduated in 1958. He completed ROTC training and joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity serving as chapter President where he again made many lifelong friendships. Post graduation, he was active in the alumni network, raising money for the University, attending class reunions, and following UVM athletics, especially basketball. Pete completed both basic training and officer candidate school at Fort Benning, Georgia and served in the Army reserves at Fort Dix, New Jersey for seven years achieving the rank of infantry captain. He was honorably discharged and upon his father’s passing, stepped into his furniture wholesale business, Pete followed in his father’s footsteps becoming a furniture manufacturer’s representative. He traveled extensively across the tri-state region where he had hundreds of retail store customers of all sizes and communities. He was a 50 plus year member of both the NY & NJ Furniture Manufacturers Representatives Associations, serving as the NJ chapter President in 1973 and receiving its Salesman of the Year award in 1992. He was adeptly skilled at sales given his high energy level, outgoing personality, gift of storytelling, and meticulous organizational skills. He continued to grow the business for the next 50 years, retiring with great reluctance at age 75, but really only because the factory closed. He stayed in touch with his many friends and colleagues afterwards, attending events and following the industry with interest. A great source of pride and satisfaction in his life was his residence on Cushing Island, Maine. For a man who did not like the beach, never swam, and had little boating experience it was a curious match. Nonetheless, he found the place and the people enriching and restorative. Though he exercised his intense interest in the landscape arts at his Haworth home, his true blank canvas was his island home which he literally roughed out of the woods creating a rustic suburban style all his own. Most of all, he loved the people there and, in his later years, traveling around in his golf cart in an unofficial mayoral capacity. He met his wife Gloria of 63 years at a restaurant when his friend went up to Gloria and told her that she should meet his friend. They dated for four years but he almost ruined it by begging off an invitation to a family wedding. To our great relief and his, he smartly realized his error and waited patiently in the parking lot of the Parkway School in Paramus, NJ months later receiving a second chance. They married on February 2, 1963. People were a constant theme in his life. He knew long before it was current science that personal relationships, connections, and staying active both physically and mentally were the key to a long and happy life. Pete was the life of any social gathering or party and, to the great frustration of his family, always one of the last to leave. He played in a weekly tennis group for close to 40 years, an important outlet for his athleticism and another social community. He had remarkable energy and tenacity all his life. Pete will be remembered for many things including his sense of humor, sartorial style, strength of character, engaging personality, and unwavering commitment to his family and friends. Pete is survived by his wife, Gloria (Nunno); sons, Peter and Daniel; daughters-in-law, Lisa and Brigitte; grandchildren, Andrew, Nicholas, and Anabelle; sister-in-law Margaret; and many cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends who will miss him dearly. His younger brother Thomas predeceased him in 2019. In lieu of flowers the family requests a memorial donation be made to the Cushing Island Conservation Corporation, P.O. Box 334, Portland, Maine 04112 or Tunnels to Towers Foundation or a charity of your choice. Visitation will be on Sunday, March 29 from 2:00pm to 6:00pm at Barrett Leber Funeral Home in Tenafly. A funeral service will be held on Monday, March 30 at 10:00 am at Sacred Heart Church in Haworth.

Peter Thomas Colli

May 26, 1935 - March 23, 2026