Reverend Angelo G. Crescenzo

The Reverend Angelo G. Crescenzo died on Thursday, September 7, 2000 at the St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, following heart surgery and a lengthy illness. He was 83 years old. Reverend Crescenzo was the pastor of the Sweet Hollow Church from May 20, 1956 to April 20, 1965, a critical period in our church's history. When it was voted to discontinue church services at Sweet Hollow on March 16, 1930 because of diminishing attendance, there were only occasional funeral services held in the Church. After the Church was rediscovered by the new families moving to Melville following the Second World War and reorganized October 3rd 1948, pulpit supply ministers conducted worship services until Reverend Crescenzo was called as the first full-time minister since 1930. During his pastorate at Sweet Hollow a dramatic growth in church membership took place from 68 members when he was installed on September 7, 1956 to 535 members. Sunday School rolls grew from 151 to 378 and the old Christian Education Building on Gwynne Road was built to serve the large Sunday School. Reverend Crescenzo was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Bloomfield College and Biblical Theological Seminary in New York City. Before his pastorate at Sweet Hollow he served as the pastor of the Glen Morris Presbyterian Church in Richmond Hill. He is survived by his wife Barbara and two grown children from an earlier marriage, Richard and Dorothy Ann, and his grandchildren. There will be a Service of Witness to the Resurrection on Sunday, September 24th at 3 P.M. in the First Presbyterian Church, Main and South Streets, Port Jefferson, New York.