Coccola, Anthony T.

Anthony T. Coccola

Early Life

Anthony Thomas Coccola was born on July 11, 1897, in Rye, New York, the son of Gaetano Coccola and Rosa Schiro. He was raised in Rye as part of the town’s growing Italian-American community during a period when immigrant families were becoming an integral part of the local workforce and civic life.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Rye included both long-established families and newly arrived immigrants who contributed to the town’s development through labor, trade, and small business. Coccola’s upbringing reflects this environment, rooted in a close-knit immigrant community while also connected to the broader growth of the town.

World War I Service

Coccola entered military service on September 4, 1917, at the New York Navy Yard, joining the United States Naval Reserve Force as the nation mobilized for World War I.

He began his training at the Naval Training Camp at Pelham Bay Park, one of the Navy’s primary wartime training centers, before continuing his specialized instruction at the Naval Radio School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This advanced training prepared him for work in one of the most technologically significant fields of the war—radio communications.

Coccola initially served as a Landsman Electrician (Radio), later advancing to Electrician Third Class and then Electrician Second Class. In this role, he was responsible for maintaining and operating radio equipment, ensuring reliable ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication. Naval radio specialists were essential to coordinating fleet movements, transmitting orders, and maintaining contact across vast distances, making their work a critical component of modern naval warfare.

A March 1919 newspaper account reported that he had been in Russia and was then in the Philippines, indicating service connected to widely dispersed naval operations during and immediately following the war. This likely reflects involvement in support of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, during which United States naval forces operated in northern Russia and Siberia to assist Allied efforts and maintain strategic positions following the collapse of the Eastern Front.

As a naval radio specialist, Coccola would have played an essential role in maintaining communications between ships, shore stations, and Allied commands across these distant regions. His reported presence in the Philippines further suggests movement through major U.S. naval stations in the Pacific, such as Naval Base Cavite, which served as a key transit and operations hub for vessels and personnel moving between Asia and the United States.

While specific ship or station assignments are not recorded, the available evidence indicates that his service was part of the Navy’s global communications and support network during the final phase of World War I and the immediate postwar period. He served on active duty from October 16, 1917, through November 11, 1918, the day of the Armistice, and continued in service until March 18, 1919, when he was placed on inactive duty with Headquarters, 3rd Naval District.

Life After Service

Following the war, Coccola returned to Rye, where he spent the remainder of his life and became a prominent figure in the local community. He was a graduate of Columbia University and in 1923 co-founded the Rye firm Barber & Coccola Inc. with Louis E. Barber, initially operating with horse-drawn carriages before expanding into a modern sanitation and construction business that served the community for decades.

He remained active in civic life, including service in the Rye volunteer fire department, and continued his involvement in business as both a partner and later a consultant. He was married to Irene Elizabeth O’Brien, who predeceased him in 1981, and was also predeceased by his son Robert in 1980.

Anthony T. Coccola died on February 21, 1984, at his home in Rye, New York, at the age of 86. At the time of his death, he was survived by his son Richard of Farmers Branch, Texas, and several grandchildren.