Joseph A. Pagliaro Sr. Family Fund

The Pagliaro family established this Fund with the many gifts given in memory of Joseph A. Pagliaro, Sr. who was the Founding Board Chair of the Valley Community Foundation. It supports various community projects and organizations as recommended to the Board by an advisory committee. "He'd sit back, learn and then he'd step up to be Chairman."

That was Joseph A. Pagliaro Sr., the man people said was the embodiment of the spirit of community service. And the man who became the Founding Chairman of the Valley Community Foundation.

"He was never satis?ed just being a member of anything," chuckles his son Joseph who now runs the family business, Riverview Funeral Home in Shelton, and tries to keep up with his late father's considerable volunteer and community service activities. "He wanted to see things go a certain way, so he'd become the president or the chairman, the 'in-charge' position." And from that vantage, he was able to accomplish an incredible amount in the Valley and beyond where he seemed to be everywhere, know everyone and volunteer in myriad arenas.

For 28 years, he supported the Boys and Girls Club of the lower Naugatuck Valley as a Board Member, former Chairman and Past President. He served on his hometown Shelton's Planning and Zoning commission for 20 years, both as Member and Chairman. He was the former Chairman of the Valley united Way, the Bowlathon for the Birmingham Group, the American Heart Association Walkathon and Board Member of the Gri?n Hospital, Valley united Way, Birmingham Group and Parent Child Resource Center. And the list goes on.

"He was a whirlwind, a man of action," says his widow Ellen, of the man she married only a year before his tragic death in June 2004. "He was an incredible man, devoted to family and community, and constantly looking out for the betterment of other people."