STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Libera Rampulla, an accomplished artist and licensed art therapist, didn’t begin her higher education at the College of Staten Island until she was a mother of four, but she knew from a very young age where it would lead.
“As a little girl, she would hang upside down from a tree because she thought it was interesting what things looked like from that perspective,’’ said her daughter, Janet Rampulla-Healy, with a chuckle. ”The inquisitive part always came out. She always wanted to learn. She was very insightful; very, very creative.”
Rampulla, of Todt Hill, known as “Lee” to friends and family, died Nov. 25, after a long illness, at the age of 96, leaving behind a legacy of resiliency, intelligence and grace.
Born Libera Pistilli in New Brighton, she grew up in Stapleton. She raised her family in New Dorp before moving to Todt Hill in 1981.
After her husband, the late Philip V. Rampulla, had completed 10 years of postsecondary education to become an architect, she started her own education journey, balancing home responsibilities with her youngest still in first grade and her husband’s full support. It was a promise of education the couple had made to each other.
“For the ’70s, she was breaking ceilings, doing things women her age weren’t doing‚’’ her daughter said.
She then earned a bachelor of science degree in life sciences from CSI, graduating summa cum laude, making her the first in her entire family to earn a college degree. She also went on to earn a master’s degree in art therapy from New York University.
“She was born during the Great Depression, the second of four girls‚’’ her daughter said. ”They really lived by ‘waste not, want not,’ ‘do without,’ ‘stretch.’ I think very young she learned how to be strong and have some sort of resiliency.“
Mrs. Rampulla’s career took her to Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, where she was director of Therapeutic Activities. She also worked as an art therapist at CSI, Jersey City Medical Center and the former St. Vincent Hospital, now Richmond University Medical Center.
She also taught art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Met Cloisters in Manhattan, and was an adjunct professor at New York University, teaching Art Therapy at the graduate level. Her long career included teaching disadvantaged and gifted children, training doctors, teachers and the disabled, and working in family therapy. She worked with a range of people, from museum administrators to psychiatric patients.
By encouraging people to visualize and put their feelings or their world into a tangible visual form, she taught art as a powerful tool for the licensed professional and for any person who had difficulty expressing themselves, her family members, including her son, Philip Rampulla, recalled.
“She was able to use the gift that was given to her by God, her art in many different mediums, and share it with other people who don’t have that that gift or could benefit by it,’’ he said.
She carved in wood and sculpted in clay and rock, painted in watercolor and oil. Upon retirement, she made stunning pieces of jewelry in metals and precious stones for family and friends.
“She would take my brother and me to the beach to collect driftwood‚’’ Rampulla-Healy recalled from her early childhood. ”She’d see a face or a body image and she’d know what she was going to carve out of it. She was very insightful, very, very creative.”
Mrs. Rampulla enjoyed bringing out the best in youth, and taught pro bono art lessons at the former Sailors Snug Harbor, High Rock Park and Historic Richmond Town.
She was married to her husband, the founder of the New Dorp architectural firm, Rampulla Associates Architects, for 48 years before his death in 2001.
In addition to Philip Rampulla and Janet Rampulla-Healy, Mrs. Rampulla is survived by her sons, Leonard Rampulla and Robert Rampulla; 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements took place earlier this week and were handled by the Matthew Funeral Home.
Both the church and the mausoleum in which she was interred were designed by her son, Leonard Rampulla, with assistance from his father.
In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to Staten Island University Hospice/Addeo House, 78 Meisner Ave., Staten Island, N.Y., 10306, to the attention of: Manager.
