Andrea Mace Aiello

Andrea Mace Rollins was born May 12, 1931 and passed away peacefully June 22, 2024. She grew up in Rutherford, NJ and graduated from Elmira College in 1953. She married Wilson W. Stearly in 1954, and they had three children, Sarah Stearly Dietz (Rob), Elizabeth Stearly Arnot (Bob) and Andrea Stearly Scully (Bob). They lived in Montclair, NJ, where Andrea was active in the Junior League, the Montclair Art Museum and the Montclair Garden Club. A member of the NY Botanical Garden and Brooklyn Botanical Garden, she took courses in horticulture at Rutgers University and gardening became her life’s relaxation.

She was also extremely active at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Montclair. She did fundraising committee work, was Directress of the Altar Guild, and helped establish Toni’s Kitchen, one of the first supplemental meal programs in Montclair.

She was divorced from Bill Stearly, and in 1974 she married Gabriel S. Aiello Jr., owner of Montclair’s beloved Wedgewood Cafeteria. After he retired, they moved to Marathon in the Florida Keys, where they built a home and enjoyed 21 years of boating. The boats kept getting larger, settling on a 55’ power boat, Gabe’s Gal. They joined the Marathon Yacht Club and made wonderful friends, with whom they cruised throughout Florida and to the Bahamas. Twice they traveled up the Intercoastal Waterway from Marathon FL to Kennebunkport, Maine and back. Maine was always embedded in Andrea’s heart – her father’s ancestral hometown, which she visited as a small child, brought her children to and returned to every year as an adult.

Everything Andrea had learned about volunteering came to fruition in Marathon, when she became involved at the Crane Point Hammock Museum & Nature Trails. She created the docent program of tours, promoted the museum in speeches throughout the Keys, and applied for and received grants from national organizations to expand the museum.

They moved to the Indian River Colony Club in Melbourne, FL, 10 miles from Cape Canaveral where they were thrilled to see launches from their backyard. At IRCC Andrea and Gabe became involved in the crew for the little theater, bocce, Aquacize, and the birds that gathered along the ponds. Andrea began a bird column for the IRCC newsletter. She recruited birders to write about what they saw in their neighborhoods, expanding to include birds beyond Frontier Drive. They also went on wonderful trips to Europe and Alaska. The ultimate was to Antarctica, which was inspiring for years to come.

During their years in Florida, Gabe’s two sons and their families and Andrea’s three daughters and their families enjoyed visiting for vacations. In 2015 Gabe died and two years later, Andrea moved north to be near her daughters and grandchildren. The joy of becoming friends with, rather than just a parent to her children and grandchildren, and all the help they gave her to live out her last years comfortably made the move worthwhile. In addition to her daughters, Andrea is survived by her grandchildren, Annaliese Dietz, Tim (Lauren) Arnot, Sandy Arnot, Sami, Katie and Bobby Scully, her great-grandchildren, Keeper and Lochlan Arnot, and a wealth of friendships made throughout her life.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Crane Point Hammock Museum & Nature Trails https://cranepoint.net/  or Elmira College https://www.elmira.edu/support-elmira/give-now.