STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Surrounded by the family she adored, Marguerite Paulo-Heyer, a lifelong educator and Staten Islander, died on Oct. 6. She was 91. <\/p>\n
Born in 1934 on Chestnut Avenue in Rosebank, Marguerite grew up on Staten Island and attended New Dorp High School. After graduation, she began her working life in Manhattan as a switchboard operator for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, a position she held until she became a mother. <\/p>\n
Career and education <\/p>\n
In 1963, Marguerite married William R. Heyer and settled in St. George, where the couple raised four daughters — Christine, Terese, Pamela, and Leslie. Even as she devoted herself to motherhood, she never lost her desire to grow, learn and help. <\/p>\n
In 1977, Marguerite returned to the workforce at the Staten Island Continuum of Education on Stuyvesant Place, a nonprofit that allowed her to begin shaping young lives in a meaningful way. <\/p>\n
While balancing work and family, Marguerite earned a bachelor of arts in education and a master\u2019s degree in psychology from the College of Staten Island, Willowbrook. For her, education was more than a career goal; it was a lifelong passion rooted in understanding and helping others. <\/p>\n
Her commitment to students deepened in 1992 when she became a special education guidance counselor at Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Known for her patience, intuition, and gentle guidance, Marguerite supported countless students throughout her decade-long tenure. <\/p>\n
She retired from the New York City Department of Education in 2002; still, she remained active, periodically working as a real estate agent with Weichert and DeFalco Realty, valuing both the work and the relationships she formed.<\/p>\n
Community involvement<\/p>\n
Marguerite was also deeply connected to her community. She was a proud member of the Alpha Beta Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, an international organization committed to elevating women educators. For many years, she served on the policy board at Mount Manresa, Fort Wadsworth, where her insight, steadiness, and quiet leadership were deeply valued.<\/p>\n
Faith was central to Marguerite\u2019s life. A lifelong parishioner of St. Joseph\u2019s R.C. Church in Rosebank, she often attended daily mass and found comfort in the rituals she had practiced since childhood. After her marriage, she worshipped at St. Peter\u2019s R.C. Church in St. George and later at St. Mary\u2019s R.C. Church in Rosebank. When St. Mary\u2019s closed, she returned to St. Joseph\u2019s, her childhood parish, where her faith remained a steady anchor.<\/p>\n
Marguerite is survived by her daughters: Christine M. Spuehler; Terese A. McKenna; Pamela E. Santore and her husband, Francis X. Santore II; and Leslie C. Casey and her husband, Jack Casey. She was a proud grandmother to Timothy D. Heyer; Kennedy A., Lindsay V., and Christian J. McKenna; Francis X. Santore III; Renata C., Giovanni W. and Mia C. Santore; and Kaitlyn R. and Alexandra C. Casey, and leaves seven great-grandchildren who brought her immense joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Surrounded by the family she adored, Marguerite Paulo-Heyer, a lifelong educator and Staten Islander,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-60719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}