A Tribute to all the Fathers
A Tribute to Tony
Anthony Michael Scotto, a son and grandson of dock workers, was born on May 10, 1934, in Brooklyn. He studied at St. Francis Preparatory School in Brooklyn and focused on pre-law and political science at Brooklyn College. At 16, he started working as a longshoreman on the Brooklyn waterfront. He began dating Marion, whom he married in 1957.
Mr. Scotto was not yet 30 when he became president of the Brooklyn-based Local 1814 of the International Longshoremen’s Association in 1963. In 1963, he became head of the ILA local 1814.
Early on, Mr. Scotto said he preferred cordial bargaining instead of threats and picket lines. He spoke quietly, read widely, and was always dressed to the nines. Mr. Scotto promised to crack down on pilfering and extortion. He delivered lectures on labor-management relations at Harvard University. He pledged to listen to shippers, who had long complained of being squeezed by the unions. “Who knows what you can achieve when there are reasonable men on both sides of the table?” he said in 1964.
He promoted renewal of the Brooklyn waterfront and oversaw a foundation that provided scholarships to union members’ children. He supported racial integration of his union. He established a union medical clinic.
Political leaders sought his endorsement everyone from Governor Hugh Carey to Mario Cuomo to Mayor's Lindsey, Beame and Us Congress persons including Senator Robert F. Kennedy to President Jimmy Carter.
After his long career on the waterfront, Anthony helped his family open Fresco by Scotto restaurant in New York City. He handpicked the artist who painted all of the murals in the restaurant, paintings that hang to this day thirty years later. He was the one who pushed the family to give Fresco one last shot after being shut down in the midst of the pandemic.
Scotto died on August 21, 2021, at the age of 87. “There’s nothing better,” he said, “than waking up on Sunday mornings and making my grandchildren pancakes and waffles, catching up on their weekend activities, starting the Sunday sauce, and then sneaking off for a round of golf with my friends before dinner.”
