Former veteran Post employee Richie Mondello died in a house fire while visiting his father, who also died following the upstate blaze, authorities said Monday.
Mondello, 62, worked for the paper for 40 years before retiring in 2014 as director of global layouts, a job in which he oversaw placement of all ads in both The Post and The Wall Street Journal.
Mondello’s “passion and exuberance” resulted in a pile of broken telephones, but “he was definitely viewed as a lovable softy,” recalled Paul Armstrong, The Post’s director of retail sales.
“He’d bleed Post red,” said Armstrong, who also described Mondello as a “massive Rangers fan.”
Mondello was staying in the basement of his father’s home in Hurley, NY, when flames erupted around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, officials said.
Carl Mondello, 89, and daughter Marianne Agnello, 60, who lives with him, both escaped the blaze, but Carl was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died.
The cause of the fire is not suspicious, said Ulster County Sheriff’s Captain Vincent Altieri.
Richie Mondello is survived by his mother, Audrey; his, wife, Sheila; nine other brothers and sisters; his stepdaughter, Stephanie Logsdon; and three grandchildren, Kylie, Noel and Maya.
Photos of Mondello will be on display during a Friday wake for his dad at the Burnett & White Funeral Home in Red Hook, NY.