By JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer
NORTH BRUNSWICK — Nothing could stop Maria Pittman from doing what she loved.
Up until about a year ago, she was climbing on roofs to build houses for Habitat for Humanity in Florida. Up until about four years ago, she was traveling around the world to build mission schools with her church.
Although she passed away on April 9 at the age of 90, her sister Jennie Conroy, 91, of North Brunswick, remembers Maria fondly.
“She was different from our family. She was always the adventurous one. She was always a risk taker,” Conroy’s granddaughter Carla Garcia said.
“She had to be or she wouldn’t be on a roof at 90 years old,” Conroy added.
Pittman was born on Feb. 8, 1926, in North Brunswick to Antonio and Lena Modestino, who were originally from Italy. Antonio worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad and was boarding with one of Lena’s relatives. Lena was the only child in her family to come from Italy to live with her grandmother in New Jersey, Conroy said.
The Modestinos — Antonio, Lena, Jennie, Mary, Josephine and Carmine — were one of the first families to live in the Adams section of North Brunswick.
Conroy remembers the area being “the woods” with just a one-lane highway. The children attended the little Adams School before Parsons Elementary School was built for her own children’s generation.
“I liked living in Adams. We had our own home,” Conroy said.
As adults, Jennie worked for Lockheed Martin in North Plainfield for more than 20 years, Carmine went into the service and Josephine worked locally for Johnson & Johnson.
Maria was employed by Mengel Box in New Brunswick, then commuted to New York to work for Griffith & Custer as a display designer, creating display stands for marketers to use in stores.
Retiring to Florida in 1992, Pittman volunteered as a dental record clerk. She became the president of her condo association and shuffleboard club. She was a member of the Honor Society of American Legionnaires, volunteered with the American Legion Auxiliary, was president of the Catholic War Veterans Ladies Auxiliary, was appointed national president of La Societe de Femme and became the state representative for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
She also found time to join Habitat for Humanity beginning at age 67. She was named the first female crew chief of the Habitat for Humanity of Palm Beach County’s Women Build project as she completed her 18th home. After age 70 she was building her 25th home. At age 79, she completed her 31st home. In 2008, her total was up to 50 homes.
She was honored at the Bethesda Hospital Foundation’s Annual Women of Grace luncheon in 2012 for working with Habitat for Humanity for more than 20 years.
In June 2009, the Panek family in Florida received a home that was affectionately known as “The Mary Pittman House.”
“She was well liked. She worked very hard over there,” Conroy said. “It was something she wanted to do so I’m glad she enjoyed doing what she was doing.”
Pittman only stopped volunteering recently after an injury, Conroy said.
“She really worked. She wasn’t just sitting around. She really did the work,” she said proudly.
Not stopping there, Pittman also visited many parts of the world as part of a church mission to rebuild schools. From 1995-2012 she visited Peru, Brazil, Jamaica, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Costa Rica and the Bahamas. She also went to Kosovo.
“It never fazed her to work with younger kids,” Conroy noted of the group being mostly comprised of college-aged adults. “She would never take breaks.”
Conroy said Pittman also enjoyed whitewater rafting on the Salmon River in Idaho while she was in her 70s.
“She covered a lot of places,” Conroy said.
“She said, ‘If Jimmy Carter could do it, so could I,’” she added. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do the things she did.”
Pittman was predeceased by her parents, Antonio and Lena Modestino, and her sister, Josephine Aldrich.
She is survived by her son Thomas Nagy, her sister Jennie Conroy of North Brunswick, her brother Carmine Modestino of Oklahoma, seven grandnieces and grandnephews and seven great-grandnieces and -nephews.
Services were held in West Palm Beach for Pittman after her cremation, but a small ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. May 7 at the chapel at Franklin Memorial Cemetery on Route 27.
Contact Jennifer Amato at jamato@gmnews.com.
