Necrology
Al DeLucia '48
Jul. 2, 1923-Nov. 4, 2022
Al DeLucia '48 died on Nov. 4, 2022, in Baldwinsville, N.Y. Born on July 2, 1923 and raised in Rochester, N.Y., he graduated from Edison Technical High School and arrived on the Hill in 1942 as an Army cadet in the Pre-Meteorology Training Program. A licensed ham radio operator in high school, he was already highly skilled in Morse code.
While he was still in training, he met Felicia Barbara Lopata, and they were married in 1943 while he was stationed at Selfridge Field near Detroit. From there, Al was sent to Kunming, China, until 1945. In February 1946, he and Felicia returned to Hamilton and lived in North Village where Virginia, the first of their seven children, was born. During this period Al joined the Army National Guard with the rank of lieutenant. On the Hill, he was a member of the Squires Club.
Graduating in 1948 with a major in chemistry and concentrations in physics and mathematics, Al joined the faculty at Utica College, teaching chemistry. Concurrently, he began part-time graduate study in education at Syracuse University, earning his master’s degree in 1955. In 1951, he took a job at the federal intelligence unit of the Rome Air Development Center (RADC) at Griffiss Air Force Base, working as an information scientist in the Intelligence and Surveillance Group.
In the course of a 29-year career during which he rose to become division chief, the highest civilian rank, he was involved in information processing, specifically intelligence gathered by spy planes and satellites at several critical points in the Cold War, including during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also developed the first computer program to translate Russian into English and vice-versa. His work took him to a number of foreign countries.
In 1974, Al took a leave from RADC to join the Diplomatic Corps and was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague in the Netherlands, working at the technical center associated with the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Europe. While residing in the Netherlands, he and his family traveled extensively throughout Europe and elsewhere, visiting 35 countries in all. In 1979, he returned to the RADC and retired the following year.
In retirement, Al remained active and engaged. He and Felicia traveled to Poland to teach English for a period of time, she being of Polish ancestry. Other trips followed, and Al volunteered in the Elderhostel Program at Hamilton on several occasions as well. Their cabin on Little Long Lake in the Adirondacks was a summer destination. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Holy Name Society, and the Voice of the Faithful, an organization of lay Catholics engaged in the governance of the church. He also was active at different times with parishes in Clinton, New Hartford, Utica, and Rochester. Family gatherings were of great importance to him.
“Hamilton College changed my life dramatically,” Al wrote in his 40th reunion yearbook. “Interactions with the staff and students at Hamilton dramatically influenced how I perceived various issues. Hamilton gave me the confidence and verbal skills to pursue programs that interested me in both my private and professional life.”
Al DeLucia is survived by his wife, six of his seven children, eight grandchildren, and a niece, Janet DeLucia Allen ’85.
