FRAN & JOHN RONDINELLI: From Police to Perfume “The Sweet Smell of Success” permeates the marriage of these Queens natives who recently moved into Building 2 -- with some interesting stops along the way. “We were just ordinary 15-yearold kids going to the movies on a Saturday afternoon when Cupid struck. “It was the Loews Plaza near the ‘L’ on Roosevelt Avenue in Corona. I was with my cousin Don, near the staircase going up to the balcony. He nudged me as a girl walked down the stairs near where we were standing. She was beautiful, truly beautiful and I wanted to talk with her. He whispered that he knew her from Newton High School and asked if I would like to meet her. He introduced us and I talked with her a little before she went off to join her friends. As she left I asked for her phone number. To my surprise she smiled and gave it to me. The rest, as they say, is history,” John said. John was accepted at Brooklyn Tech after passing a selective admission test. After graduation in 1955 he went to Pratt Institute at night while working as a draftsman during the day. He later joined IBM and enjoyed his work as a customer engineer working primarily in the garment district in Manhattan. He longed to move to Long Island but transfers were extremely difficult so he left IBM. Soon, he became a police officer in Suffolk County, starting out as a patrolman in Smithtown. By now, he and Fran were married and their family included a son, Paul, and a daughter, Jennifer. Climbing the career ladder to sergeant, detective and eventually inspector, John enjoyed police work, especially his last assignment as commander of all precinct detectives. The Rondinellis lived in Manhasset for 21 years while Fran worked with Resource Room children in the Huntington school district. “We love living at NST, where everyone smiles.” she said. “When we decided to sell our lovely house, we looked for two years all over the North Shore but never found anything we liked until we came here. We love all the cultural program offerings. John is a golfer and looks forward to playing on this beautiful course.” From January to April they spend time at their place in Fort Myers, Florida. But what about the perfume? When John was thinking of retiring from police work, a lawyer on behalf of the company told him that the Estee Lauder firm in Melville was looking for a Director of Security. The job would entail supervising the many security officers who were at the plants and distribution centers in Europe as well as executive protection for the family and key executives. Leonard Lauder, son of the legendary founder Estee, was the chief executive and his brother, Ronald, served the Reagan Administration as Ambassador to Austria. Their mother, Estee, was very much a part of running the international billion dollar enterprise, known as Estee Lauder Companies Fran as well as John got to know the family and key employees. They are still very much in touch with many of the people John worked with. The company was and still is very generous to their employees and retirees with its products. Fran recalls, “Youth Dew was a bath oil that doubled as a perfume. Instead of using French perfumes by the drop behind the ear, women began using Youth Dew by the bottle in their bath water. By 1990 more than 150 million bottles were sold each year.” This was just one of the fabulous products that she “tried out,” said Fran. In 2004, Estee Lauder died in her Manhattan home at age 97, still beautiful. The New York Times included her quote in their obituary: “Beauty is an attitude. There’s no secret. There are no ugly women – only women who don’t care or who don’t believe they are attractive.” By FRED CHERNOW North Shore Towers Courier n November 2013 17
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