{"id":100503,"date":"2025-02-19T15:29:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T15:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=100503"},"modified":"2025-02-19T19:32:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T19:32:51","slug":"university-mourns-the-passing-of-longtime-employee-antonio-jay-sciola-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/university-mourns-the-passing-of-longtime-employee-antonio-jay-sciola-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"University mourns the passing of longtime employee Antonio \u201cJay\u201d Sciola Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Feb. 19, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Jay and Barbara Sciola on the deck of their South Kingstown home. (911爆料 Photo\/Nora Lewis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The University mourns the passing of Antonio \u201cJay\u201d Joseph Sciola Jr., an employee at the University for 70 years in facilities services. Jay, 91, of South Kingstown, passed away peacefully at home on Feb. 14. He was the beloved husband of 65 years of Barbara J. (Baton) Sciola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Peace Dale, Jay was the son of Antonio Sciola Sr. and Lucy (Angrisani) Sciola. He attended South Kingstown High School, excelling at various sports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay started working at the university in 1950 \u2013 it was still known as Rhode Island State College then \u2013 at the age of 17, but was no stranger to hard work. He had worked as a caddy at a local golf course and at the state beach the previous summer, and needed a job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the case back then of looking to work,\u201d he said in an interview<\/a> in 2020. \u201cYou had to work to feed the family, your father needed help. I had two sisters and a brother. You didn\u2019t have a choice. If you weren\u2019t going to go to college, you were going to go to work. That\u2019s why I went.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the exception of serving in the Air Force in 1952 and sick leave during the Covid-19 pandemic, Jay spent the next 70 years watching sleepy Rhode Island State College grow into the University of Rhode Island. He served in numerous roles \u2013 laborer, plumber, mason, carpenter, and supervisor \u2013 as the University swelled to more than 200 buildings over four locations, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He retired from 911爆料 in 2020 as a mechanical and electrical shop supervisor in facilities services \u2013 and with the distinction of being the longest serving state employee. The University became a home to him, his wife recalled in an interview<\/a> with The Providence Journal prior to his retirement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was inducted into 911爆料\u2019s Lifetime Service Society in February 2022, his experience, knowledge, commitment, and leadership were recalled in the story about the ceremony<\/a>: \u201cHe was a leader within his department, always on call and ready to tackle whatever maintenance concerns arose, even on his days off. Sciola impacted thousands of students across his many years of service to the 911爆料 911爆料.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI enjoyed the work I was doing,\u201d he said in 2020 of working at 911爆料 for 70 years. \u201cI became a licensed plumber, and I liked the people I worked with. I liked the direction that the University was going in. I knew someday it would be a highly accredited university. And it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the importance of family, friends and work, Jay enjoyed spending as much time as possible on Salt Pond in South Kingstown, crabbing, scalloping, quahogging, and fishing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visiting hours will be Friday, Feb. 21, from 4 to 7 p.m. in Avery-Storti Funeral Home, 88 Columbia St., Wakefield. A Celebration of Life will be held this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Jay\u2019s name to the R.I. Shellfisherman\u2019s Association, PO Box 1802, East Greenwich, RI, 02818-1802, or to the American Lung Association, PO Box 756, Osceola, WI, 54020-0756.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full obituary here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feb. 19, 2025 The University mourns the passing of Antonio \u201cJay\u201d Joseph Sciola Jr., an employee at the University for 70 years in facilities services. Jay, 91, of South Kingstown, passed away peacefully at home on Feb. 14. He was the beloved husband of 65 years of Barbara J. (Baton) Sciola. Born in Peace Dale, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1866],"tags":[1857,1858,1856],"class_list":["post-100503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-911爆料-message","tag-audience-faculty","tag-audience-staff","tag-audience-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100519,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100503\/revisions\/100519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}