Dimitri Ocasal

Dimitri “Dimi” Ocasal of Pearl River, formerly a 44-year resident of West Nyack, passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by his family on January 25, 2025. He was 88. 

A proud native New York City kid, Dimitri was born on October 10, 1936 in Manhattan, where he met his beloved wife, Lucille Marie Finnegan. They married in 1962 and began raising their family in Inwood, NY until moving to Rockland County in 1977.

Dimitri was an outstanding student who graduated with honors with a Bachelor’s degree from Fordham University —  a proud “Fordham Man”; and a Master’s degree from Hunter College.  He was a dedicated educator, putting in long hours as a foreign language department chairman and teacher of Spanish, Italian and English for 45 years prior to his retirement in 2005, spending the last 41 years at Memorial High School in Elmwood Park, NJ. He was an avid reader and student of history, languages and philosophy.  Dimitri enjoyed long, meaningful conversations and debate on these topics with friends, family and colleagues.

Dimitri had a lively sense of humor and enjoyed classic movies, music from the 40’s and show tunes and spending time with his family. But his passion was America’s pastime — baseball. He was a student of the history and majesty of the game, first and foremost, and loved to play centerfield with his friends and teammates on the NYC sandlots.

 As a fan, he enjoyed listening to MLB games on his omnipresent transistor radio, with games called by Mel Allen, Vin Scully, Red Barber and Bob Murphy. He rooted for all four teams during various points of his life, however in 1962 he became a full-time New York Mets fan. He took great pride watching his children grow, following all of their endeavors, and as “Grandpa D”, he adored watching his grandchildren play all their sports, in particular baseball and softball, as it gave him great happiness to see his passion for the game passed on to the next generation. 

Dimitri is survived by Lucille, his wife of 62 years, his children Marc (KellyAnn) and Larissa Branin (Paul), his grandchildren Shane, Connor, Courtney, Dolan and Tommy.  He also leaves behind his sisters-in-law Theresa Febles (George), Patricia Lalor and Barbara Heusner (John) and many nieces and nephews in the Ocasal, Rudnicki, Febles, Lalor and Heusner families, as well as our cousins in the Taaffe and Bowes families.  

He is predeceased by his parents Julio and Maria, his siblings Zinaida “Zinny” and Norman “Eddie”, his parents-in-law Patrick Finnegan and Anne (Dolan), his brothers-in-law Anthony Rudnicki and Daniel Lalor and sister-in-law Joaquina Ocasal and our cousins from the Taaffe family (Uncle Tommy, Aunt Kitty, Thomas, James, Patricia, John, Patrick, Laura Traynor, Rose Marie and Richard Bowes).

Friends and family are invited to pay respects at Wyman-Fisher Funeral Home, 100 Franklin Avenue, Pearl River, NY on Friday, January 31st from 4pm to 8pm.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Saint Margaret of Antioch on Saturday, February 1st at 11am, followed by burial at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY.

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