Francis C Sarro Jr D.D.S.

FRANCIS C. SARRO, JR., D.D.S. of Wilmington, Delaware, passed on peacefully on Monday, January 10, 2022 at the age of 89.

He was born on November 7, 1932 in Wilmington, Delaware, the son of Francis and Mary Verderamo Sarro.  He grew up on 19th Street with his younger sister, RoseAnn, and attended Saint Patrick’s School and Salesianum School with  neighbors, classmates, and team mates with whom he would remain life-long friends.  While in high school, he also met his beloved Adeline Julian, maybe realizing, even then, the loving life together that lay ahead of them.  Fran graduated from Salesianum in 1950 and was president of the senior class.  He attended LaSalle College and in 1953, began his study of dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.  He and Adeline were married in 1954 and, upon graduation from Penn in 1957, he served for two years in the U.S. Army Dental Corps at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.  Thereafter, they returned to Wilmington, where Fran established his practice and devoted himself to family and community.  He served as president of the Salesianum Alumni Association, president of the Delaware State Dental Society, a district trustee of the American Dental Association, and was a fellow of the American College of Dentists and the Pierre Fauchard Academy.  He was devoted to the spiritual and community life of Saint John the Beloved parish for over 60 years, as an original sponsor in the RCIA program, an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, and as a Fourth-Degree member of Knights of Columbus Council 11796.  He later served as a member of the Lay Advisory Board of the Little Sisters of the Poor.  But perhaps Fran’s greatest gift was the warmth, gentility, and generosity with which he poured himself into all those things, and the genuine smile he had for everyone whose life he touched along the way.

Fran is survived by his son John and his wife Susan; his son Fran and his wife Diane; his daughter Loretta; his daughter Annette Mulry and her husband Christopher of Gambrills, Maryland; his daughter Christina Donaher and her husband Thomas of Norwalk, Connecticut; his son Mark and his wife Susan of Dover, Massachusetts; grandchildren Stephen Mulry and his wife Karen, Amanda Frew and her husband Daniel, Anna Mulry and her fiancé Mikey Wallin, Luke Sarro and his fiancé Alyssa Binkley, Elizabeth Raibley and her husband Zachary, Elspeth Carter and her husband Bryan, Matthew Donaher, Sean Donaher, Nathan Sarro, and Martin Sarro; and great-grandchildren Brianne Mulry and Theodore Carter.  He was preceded in death by his wife of 57 years, Adeline Julian Sarro, his sister RoseAnn Sarro Carucci, his brother-in-law Gabriel Julian, his brother-in-law J.R. Julian, and his brother-in-law R.R. “Buddy” Rizzo.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, January 18th at 11:00 a.m. at Saint John the Beloved Roman Catholic Church, 907 Milltown Road, Wilmington.  Family and friends may call at the church beginning at 9:30 a.m.  Entombment will follow at All Saints Cemetery, Wilmington.  In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Saint John the Beloved Church or Little Sisters of the Poor, 185 Salem Church Road, Newark, Delaware 19713.

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