Denise Gioffre, nursery school teacher

Denise E. Gioffre of Ridgefield, who had taught hundreds of nursery school children in town and was a volunteer in church and health programs, died on Sunday afternoon, March 20, 2005, at Danbury Hospital. She was 53 years old and the wife of Anthony J. Gioffre Jr.

Mrs. Gioffre was born in Oceanside, N.Y., a daughter of Austin and Olga Alchimionok Brandt, and grew up in Valley Stream, N.Y. She graduated from State University of New York at Oswego with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a minor in mathematics.

After graduation, teaching jobs were scarce and she took a post with Xerox, where her abilities at mathematics were soon recognized.

“She was a math whiz,” said her husband. Mrs. Gioffre became a financial analyst with the company, and was involved early on in the programming and use of computers. She left Xerox to begin raising a family.

The Gioffres moved from Nyack, N.Y., to Ridgefield in 1975. Five years later, Mrs. Gioffre began teaching at My Nursery School and taught there and at the Children’s Academy until her retirement in 2002.

“You could not walk down Main Street without running into someone who knew her,” Mr. Gioffre said. “She taught so many children over the years.”

Mrs. Gioffre was also active as a volunteer. She assisted at the Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, where she was a member of the Prayer and Healing Group and the Deborah Circle, and had helped at many events, including the annual Yankee Peddler Fair.

She had volunteered with the Meals on Wheels program, the Ridgebury School PTA, and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

Mrs. Gioffre was expert at cooking and baking, her husband said, observing that despite her Swedish background, “Boy, could she cook Italian!” She learned the latter from Mr. Gioffre’s mother and grandmother.

“She loved to make people happy, and that’s one of the ways she did that,” he said of her cooking skills.

“She was exceptional at everything she did,” he added.

Besides her husband of 32 years, Mrs. Gioffre is survived by two sons, Daniel Gioffre and his wife, Bette, of Nashua, N.H., and Matthew Gioffre of Philadelphia, Pa.; a sister, Karin Logrieco and her husband, Peter, of Port Washington, N.Y.; two brothers, Andrew Brandt of West Long Branch, N.J., and Richard Brandt and his wife, Helene, of Yorktown Heights, N.Y.; as well as several nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Services will take place today, Thursday, at 11 at Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church.

Burial will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Ridgefield.

Contributions in her memory may be made to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, 51 Locust Ave., Suite 201, New Canaan, CT 06840.

The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.