Raymond Lepore

Raymond Lepore died on October 2 in Poughkeepsie, New York, at the age of 86.

The youngest of four sons, Raymond was born on St. Valentine’s Day, 1940, at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio, to Salvatore Lepore and Mary Dambrogio. He graduated from Ursuline High School in 1958. Raymond attended the Germaine School of Photography in New York City returning to Youngstown to establish Lepore Studios. In 1960, he married Sandra Ficocelli, daughter of Michael Ficocelli, co-founder of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. They had three children, Gregory, Richard, and Lisa.

The family moved to California in 1970 where Raymond pursued a degree in political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After starting a master’s in African Studies at UCLA, he shifted course and began a career as a developer, establishing Lepore and Associates in Santa Monica and partnering with cutting-edge architects on AIA award-winning condominium projects. A life-long lover of jazz, Raymond co-founded Snookies in West Los Angeles, a jazz club that welcomed some of the brightest talents in LA.

In 1984, Raymond married Teresa Samuels, who would become his life-long partner, adopting her son Matthew Lepore.

Raymond officially integrated design and building with a master’s in architecture from Kent State University in 1994. His initial project was a renovation for his father-in-law, Carl Samuels, the first of many homes he designed for family, each beloved. In Youngstown he worked on the restoration of the historic Warner Brothers theater, built homes in California and New York’s Hudson Valley, and served 15 years as in-house architect for his niece’s company, Nanette Lepore. He remembered well how as a child he built brick homes alongside his father, who taught him the masonry skills he had learned in his hometown of Sulmona, Italy.

Politics and art were pillars throughout Raymond’s life. He believed that any society worth its salt required well designed public spaces and honored the dignity of work and workers’ rights. And for both those passions, light was essential, the working metaphor and tool of his trades: informant for his photography and architecture, to his attentive intellectualism, and his forged and annealed politics rooted in his immigrant father’s steel-mill black lung disease. That he became almost completely blind from glaucoma in his final years was devastating to Raymond, and he declined to appreciate the irony.

Raymond insisted on stepping into the void only to come out the other side with surprising results. He was a teacher to many, and an inspiration to more, nudging us to make the most of it, whatever it was. He was funny, critical, a reader, loved his animals. He cherished New York City and its jazz clubs, Italy, the big Pacific of California, and Santa Monica, where he felt most at home. Raymond’s family and friends were at the center of his life. He particularly cherished the young people in his life---grandchildren, friends, and inherited family through marriage and luck. He loved hearing about their plans, hopes, follies, and victories.

Raymond is survived by Teresa, his wife of 42 years; children Gregory (Jeanne LePage), Richard, Lisa (Gregory Leazer), and Matthew (Jennifer Hobdy); grandchildren Nicolo Lepore, Lucas Garcia, Sofia Lepore, Ian Garcia, Samson Lepore, and Griffin Lepore, beloved nieces and nephews, in-laws, and friends around the world. Predeceased by his parents and brothers Henry, James, and Myron, Raymond was the last Lepore brother to leave this mortal plane.

A friend remarked of Raymond’s passing, “Weren’t we lucky to be swept along in his dreams?” To which we say a resounding yes. Our family has a message for anyone reading this: Visit your people, love them as much as you can for as long as you can. They will be gone and you will miss them terribly.

A memorial service will be held in Pasadena, California, February 2027.