Henry Saia, 90, factory manager, church officer

After his first wife, Marie, died in 1992, Henry Saia lived alone for 13 years.

Mr. Saia had retired in 1980 as a clothing factory manager in South Jersey and later became financial director for St. Mary Church and its school in Williamstown.

"The church gave him a parking spot with his name on it," his son Thomas said, "and one day after Mass, a lady his age was standing there."

She introduced herself, now a widow, as the Elizabeth Schaeffer with whom he had been friends in a grammar school in Cedar Brook.

After they parted, Mr. Saia realized that he didn't know her married name. So he asked a church secretary "to look up every Betty that was his age" in the congregation's files.

"He had to talk to five women before he found the one he was talking to," Thomas Saia said. "It turned out she lived up the street from him, a couple blocks away."

In 2005, at age 80, they were married.

On Tuesday, April 21, Mr. Saia, 90, died of congestive heart failure after a brief stay at Juniper Village at Williamstown, an assisted-living community.

His second wife, the former Elizabeth Juliano, died in 2012.

Mr. Saia was born on his family's rented crop farm in Sicklerville and studied at a vocational school in the Berlin area.

"He joined the Marine Corps at 17 in 1942. He lied about his age," Thomas Saia said. "He used to tell us that at boot camp, a lot of recruits would complain about the conditions, but he was happy. It was the first time in his life he had an indoor bathroom."

Mr. Saia had hoped to become a Marine pilot.

"He worked at the Cross Keys airport in Williamstown" as a teenager, his son said, "and they gave him flying lessons, for pay."

But the Marines made him the gunner on a Douglass Dauntless, a two-man dive bomber, and "him and his buddy became the best gunners," so much so that they became Marine gunnery instructors stateside.

After the war, an uncle who owned a dress factory in Williamstown "gave him a job as a mechanic. And over the years he rose, then owned the dress factory for a while himself."

But for most of his career, his son said, Mr. Saia was the manager for a factory in Elmer owned by Chatham Sportswear in New York City.

Mr. Saia did not retire from his salaried job in the church business office until he was 88. "He didn't think a man was worth anything if he wasn't working," his son said.

Joyce Hyndman, secretary to the Rev. Cadmus D. Mazzarella, pastor at St. Mary, recalled Mr. Saia as "a very thorough man. He worked with me. He was very good in his job."

Besides his son, Mr. Saia is survived by sons Robert and Joseph; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A viewing was set from 9:30 to 11:15 a.m. Monday, April 27, at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church/Our Lady of Peace Parish, South Main Street, Williamstown, before an 11:30 a.m. Funeral Mass there, with burial in St. Mary's Cemetery.

Donations may be sent to St. Mary's School, 32 Carroll Ave., Williamstown, N.J. 08094.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.farnellifuneralhome.com.