Obituary of John Broderick

John T. "Handsome Jack" Broderick, our beloved father, entered into the eternal, loving embrace of our Lord on October 29th with a number of his children at his bedside, along with the prayers of the entire family. He was a devout Catholic and devoted family man.

Dad was born on May 17th, 1929 at St. John's Hospital in Queens, NY to Luke and Vera Broderick. He graduated high school from Brooklyn Tech. He worked in Sales at S.B. Penick & Company to help support his parents and sisters while going to school at night at St. John's University, where he earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting. Upon graduation he went to work for L.A. Champon & Company where he began his very successful 38 year career in the Flavors and Fragrance business. He joined IFF in 1962 as a Purchasing manager and moved to Givaudan in 1974 where he became Vice President in charge of the Chemical Division. After a brief stint with Ungerer Corporation, he finished his career as Vice President of Operations/Adminstration for Takasago International. Dad’s job took him all over the world, especially early in his career, seeking sources of unique flavors and fragrances. These included rural areas in Morocco, Malaysia and Indonesia rarely visited by Westerners. We kids were always the highlight of “show and tell” in grade school when we brought in some of the fascinating  gifts he would give us after each of his international adventures.

It was at St. John's that he met the love of his life - Ronnie McNiff. They were married for 61 wonderful years and started a large and still growing family of 8 children, 24 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren (with 1 on the way) – sons Jack (Kathy), Phil (Ruth), Tom (Nancy), Tim (Angie) and Matt, and daughters Maureen (Brad) Wilhelm, Veronica (Eddie) Dwyer and Barbara (Jeffrey) McCurdy.  Dad truly loved and adored his grandchildren – Kristyn, Coleen, Mary, Kayleigh, Courtney, Paige, Luke, Shannon, Tim, Brian, Matt, John, Sean, Danielle, Jack, Megan, Haley, Brodie, Ronnie, Eiko, Lindsay, Riley, Nicholas and his great-grandchildren – Ethan, Evan, Vera and Shepard.

In addition, Dad is survived by his sister – Joan McGowan and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his beautiful, loving bride Ronnie -  sisters Eileen and Vera, nieces Katie and Ginger and granddaughter Katie. Visitation will be on Nov 7^th from 6-8 PM at the Vander Plaat Funeral Home in Wyckoff, NJ. His funeral Mass will be celebrated on Nov 8^th at 10 AM at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Wyckoff.

Dad was one of the most charitable men around, supporting more charities and those in personal need than could ever be listed. In lieu of flowers, please feel free to honor Dad’s life and charitable spirit with a donation to the charity of your choice.