Hoboken born and raised First Sergeant Phillip A. Petrignani may have passed away in October of 2000, but his service to his country has not been forgotten.
Recently, Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco gave Petrignani’s family a proclamation for his distinguished meritorious service in ground combat during World War II in the European-African-Middle-Eastern Theatre of Operations.
Petrignani joined the army in 1945 and in a short period of time achieved the rank of first sergeant and led a depot company in the 20th Armed Division. Having the considerable asset of knowing five languages, including French and Italian, he interpreted and checked the correspondences and records pertaining to the company’s administration. He also supervised the labor and feeding of prisoners of war and the employment and duties of over 300 French civilians. In some cases he was responsible for the return of serious AWOL cases and was an investigator to detect cases of sabotage and theft.
He and his company were awarded three bronze stars for the Rome Arno and Rhineland campaigns and the invasion of Southern France.
Petrignani was born in Hoboken in 1919 in a modest Willow Street home. After being honorably discharged from the Army in 1945, he spent almost 30 years working as a manager at Maxwell House.
"While he worked at Maxwell House, he formed some very close relationships," said his daughter, Cheryl Petrignani Bracht, from her Manalapan home. "There is nothing that he liked more than having friends and family over for a big dinner."
In 1941 he married his childhood sweetheart, Geraldine, at Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church on Hudson Street. They spent 59 years together and together had one son, Philip, one daughter, Cheryl, five grandchildren, Philip, Stephen, Dara, Anthony and Todd; and one great-granddaughter, Emily. After retiring for Maxwell House in 1968 he, his wife and his family moved to Manalapan.
In addition to being an excellent cook, he enjoyed deep sea and sport fishing as well as gardening and painting.
"He was a very special person," said Cheryl. "He always had a lot of vitality and a beautiful zest for living. You could see it in everything he did, even if it was something as mundane as cooking a bowl of soup. The way he would describe that soup would make it sound like it was the most wonderful thing in the world."