By Sophia Chang
Born in Brooklyn on Dec. 9, 1923, Calegari grew up in Ridgewood and attended Grover Cleveland High School, according to his widow, Marion Calegari. During World War II, he served as a second lieutenant navigator in the U.S. Army Air Corps, but he avoided overseas conflict and served his country on American soil. “He was lucky,” Marion Calegari said, of her late husband's assignment.When he returned from service, he married his wife in 1948 and the young couple lived in Corona for a few years while Calegari attended the New York Institute of Photography. In 1954, Calegari opened the Bayside Studio of Portrait and Commercial Photography in the first of three locations on or near Bell Boulevard's shopping strip. “In those days Bayside was very different,” Marion Calegari said. “There was one photographer, one hardware store. They wouldn't duplicate stores in those days. It was a really nice little town.” He was also a commercial photographer for Fortunoff department stores, but it was as Bayside's portrait taker that Calegari made his legacy. He shot photos of nearly everyone in the neighborhood until he retired in 1998. “He photographed three-quarters of Bayside,” his wife said. “He did weddings, and then their children, and now and again their grandchildren.” He also occasionally shot photographs for the Bayside Times, going out on assignments when there was a need, Marion Calegari said. The Calegaris moved to their home on 43rd Avenue in 1957, when their daughter Maria was born. Marion Calegari, who had been working as a medical secretary at the New York Foundling Hospital, worked for her husband before starting her own business in a corner of his studio. “I took part of his studio and opened my own store, a dollhouse and miniatures store called Minimi,” she said. Calegari, who was an “avid aviation buff” and in his spare time loved to build and fly model airplanes, would assist her in creating models. “When he wasn't building airplanes he was helping me build dollhouses,” Marion Calegari said. “He was just a very proficient builder.” He would also build his own cameras, she said. His pride and joy was his only child, Maria Calegari, who was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and now teaches ballet all over the world. “He was most proud of Maria, who was a ballerina and gave us years of joy,” Marion Calegari said. He was also civic-minded and was a member of the Bayside Businessmen Association and the Bayside Lions' Club for many years, and as part of the Lions' club he helped bring a Civil War re-enactment to the area. “He was very proud of the fact that in 1976, he instituted a recreation of the Bunker Hill re-enactment in Crocheron Park over a weekend,” his widow said. “He was always interested in history, and it was just the first time they had done something like that. It really was a big thing, and it was quite an experience.” Calegari is survived by his wife Marion, daughter Maria, and brothers Ted and Bob Calegari. His family plans to scatter his ashes at a beloved campground upstate. Reach reporter Sophia Chang by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
