Vito Lopez
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Vito J. Lopez Assemblyman |
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|---|---|
| Member of the New York State Assembly from the 53rd district |
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In office January 1985 – May 20, 2013 |
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| Preceded by | Victor L. Robles |
| Succeeded by | Maritza Davila |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Vito Joseph Lopez June 5, 1941 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | November 9, 2015 (aged 74) Manhattan, New York |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Joan Lopez (divorced) |
| Alma mater |
Yeshiva University (MSW) Long Island University (BS, Business Administration) James Madison High School |
| Profession | Social worker, non-profit program manager, politician |
Vito Joseph Lopez (June 5, 1941 – November 9, 2015) was an American politician from New York. He was a member of the New York State Assembly, and chairman of the Democratic Party of Kings County.
Vito Lopez was born on June 5, 1941, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, of an Italian-American family; his last name Lopez derives from his grandfather, who was a native of Spain. Vito Lopez graduated from Brooklyn's James Madison High School, and received a BS in Business Administration from Long Island University (1964), and a Master of Social Work from Yeshiva University (1970), where he was trained in the community organizing program. Lopez and his former wife Joan have two grown children.
Lopez was diagnosed with leukemia in 1993, and in 2010 was treated for a recurrence of cancer. He died on November 10, 2015 at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital at the age of 74.
Lopez began his career with the New York City Department of Social Services, at the Stanhope Street Senior Center in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Recognizing that the Bushwick section of Brooklyn received little attention from City Hall and senior citizen programs there received even less in terms of program support, Lopez began organizing senior citizens there. His first attracted citywide attention by organizing in November 1981 an assembly of 100 senior citizens at Brooklyn Borough Hall to protest what they saw as the "serious neglect" shown to them in programs for decent housing, nursing homes and medical facilities. Lopez began researching the programs for senior citizens available from local, state and federal funding sources in order to supplement the relatively meager services offered at the Stanhope Street Senior Center. This led his to conceive the idea of creating a not-for-profit that would enter into government contracts to provide services for senior citizens, which he planned would focus on Bushwick and the neighboring Italian-American community of Ridgewood, Queens.
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