Brooklyn mourns Jack Vanasco, a veteran who made restoring the Brooklyn War Memorial his cause

February 9, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Jack Vanasco, in hat, was honored at a recent Brooklyn Veterans Day ceremony. Photo by Beth Eisgrau-Heller/Beth Heller Photos

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Brooklyn residents, especially local veterans, are mourning World War II veteran and activist Jack Joseph Vanasco, 95, who died Feb. 3.

Vanasco was best known for his efforts — along with his brother Roy — to renovate and reopen the Brooklyn War Memorial in Cadman Plaza.

The building, opened in 1951, hosted a variety of community functions over the years — from theater to yoga classes to meetings of veterans’ groups — but never became a public memorial in the way that its founders had hoped. Since the early 2000s, it’s mainly served as a Parks Department storage facility. Its main hall, not currently open to the public, is inscribed with the names of more than 11,000 Brooklyn servicemembers who lost their lives during World War II.

Along with his brother Roy, also known as Rocco, Jack Vanasco also owned an appliance repair store in Clinton Hill for about 60 years until it was closed in 2017. The two brothers were still making service calls into their eighties.

Jack Vanasco was a lifelong Brooklynite. He, Roy Vanasco and two other brothers, Terry and Joe, all served in the U.S. armed forces during the “big one,” or World War II. A statement from Marine Park Funeral Home describes Jack as a devout Catholic who was devoted to his wife, Theresa Vanasco, who died in 1988. “Sadly, Jack experienced another heartbreak a few months ago when he lost his beloved son, Jack Joseph Vanasco Jr.,” according to the funeral home.

WWII veteran brothers Roy and Jack Vanasco at the Brooklyn War Memorial in 2015, holding a photo showing all four of the Vanasco brothers in uniform. Photo courtesy of Toba Potosky

Jack and Roy Vanasco, along with other veterans, were prominent at every meeting about revitalizing the War Memorial, and they always had something to say on the topic. Former Borough President Howard Golden, who died recently, was also very active in efforts to restore the building.

Periodically, plans were announced to renovate the building, but the need for ADA compliance proved to be a stumbling block — until recently. These plans often fizzled away, but the brothers never gave up hope.

In 2019, when the city finally announced plans to break ground to renovate the historic building, Jack Vanasco told Brooklyn Eagle editor Raanan Geberer, rather bluntly, that “Before we kick the bucket, my brother and I want this thing to be done so people can go visit.”

In 2022, Jack Vanasco was honored at a ceremony in Downtown Brooklyn hosted by the Cadman Park Conservancy and sponsored by Veterans for Political Innovation.

Pointing the name on the wall in the main room, he told Eagle reporter Mary Frost, “There’s 11,000 names on that wall, men and women from Brooklyn. There’s about 15 or 17 people that we played ball with — they got killed in the Battle of the Bulge and Iwo Jima and a lot of the islands. We all grew up together and lived in the same neighborhood.”

At the ceremony, Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who represents the area, said, “It’s quite an extraordinary thing to have four brothers go off to war and serve this country. They call it the Greatest Generation for a reason.”

The Brooklyn War Memorial in Cadman Plaza. The two relief statues at either end
represent Victory and Family. Wikimedia photo by Ajay Suresh

Saying that the Vanasco brothers had made reopening the Memorial a “lifetime work,” Restler added, “I want you to know you have a partner in me, in Marty [Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Martin Maher] and the whole team to finally make this War Memorial everything it can and should be for our community.”

As of 2022, according to an article in the Eagle, an ADA-accessible ramp and elevator had been installed. The Parks Department website also reports that installation of an ADA-accessible bathroom is complete. More work on the building is under way.

Jack Vanasco is survived by this brother Roy and several nieces and nephews along with their families. He was preceded in death by his brothers Terry, Thomas and Joseph as well as his wife.

Funeral services were held Thursday at Resurrection Cemetery in Staten Island.