Raffaele DeLeonardis

Raffaele DeLeonardis, age 50 of Eatontown, died on Monday, June 14, 2021. He was born on June 23, 1970 in Putignano, Italy and came to the United States when he was 4 years old with his parents Onofrio and Maria. They settled in Burbank, California where they welcomed his sister Lucia. Raffaele attended elementary school at Robert Bellarmine Catholic School in Burbank, CA in and Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Ca in 1988. He graduated Cum Laud from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 1992.  

Raffaele worked for Prudential Financial, Oracle, IBM and finally PricewaterhouseCoopers where he became a partner in 2019. While working for Prudential Financial in the Policy owner relations department in Quincy, MA, he met his beloved Lori Ioli DeLeonardis. They were married on July 30, 1999 at St. Jerome Church in West Long Branch. They went on to have 5 beautiful children, Clementina 20, Michael 18, Carmela (14-in heaven), Angelo 12 and Lidia 9. They shared so many wonderful adventures over the years with many trips to the beach, many trips to California to visit the family, several trips to Italy to visit the family and learn about their heritage and their culture. To celebrate 20 years of marriage, they took the family for a trip around Europe. It was a trip of a lifetime. 

Raffie was the head soccer coach for the Tinton Falls Soccer Club Warriors 2012-2017 for his son Michael and many of his friends. He also coached several rec teams in West Long Branch for many years. Raffie was a lover of Alfa Romeo and was a member of the Alfa Romeo Club of America. 

Raffie loved to garden. You could always find him in the yard staring at his plants and thinking about the next big project for the backyard. He loved when the whole family gathered together in his yard to celebrate holidays, birthdays or just Sunday dinner.  

Raffie’s favorite projects were jarring tomatoes for sauce with the family for the whole year and making his own wine. Every year the family comes together and processes over 1,800 pounds of tomatoes and the following weekend pressed enough grapes to produce over 50 bottles of wine.  

Recently Raffie set a goal to get in shape before he turned 50. He began running and started Kung Fu to relieve stress from work, meditate and take time to really relax.  

Raffaele is predeceased by his daughter Carmela and father-in-law Michael Ioli.  Raffie is survived by his wife of 22 years Lori Ioli DeLeonardis, his four beautiful children Clementina, Michael, Angelo and Lidia; his parents Onofrio and Maria (Proietto) DeLeonardis and sister, Lucia (DeLeonardis) Barber and her husband Alex; mother-in-law Maryanne Ioli, sister-in-law Joanne (Ioli) Dunn and her husband Alex; niece and nephews Juliet and William Dunn and Julian Barber, and many aunts, uncles and cousins in both the United States and Italy.

Visitation will be held on Monday, June 21 from 4-8 pm at the Damiano Funeral Home, 191 Franklin Avenue in Long Branch. Funeral, Tuesday; 9:00 am from the funeral home with a Mass celebrated at 10:00 am at St. Jerome Church in West Long Branch. Interment will follow at Woodbine Cemetery, Oceanport. It is at the family’s request that donations be made to the DeLeonardis Family Education Fund, P.O. Box 567, Long Branch, NJ 07740. The family invites you to leave a letter of condolence by selecting the Tribute/Guestbook link above.

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