Bayside Teacher Killed In Crash With Accused Drunken Driver

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — A longtime social studies teacher at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School was killed in a crash with a suspected drunken driver on Long Island, state police said.

Anthony Mariano, 44, died on Nov. 20 after he was struck by a driver going the wrong way on the Sunken Meadow State Parkway near exit SM3, according to police.

The driver, 38-year-old Joseph Norris, was arrested on a DWI charge, the New York State Police announced Monday.

Mariano had taught at Cardozo for 17 years, the New York Daily News reported.

"He was such an amazing teacher who made social studies fun and interesting to learn about, by presenting it in such a way that made you genuinely want to listen to him teach it," a former student wrote on Mariano's online obituary page. "He is one of very few teachers from Cardozo that I remember particularly well to this day because of the impression he left upon me."

Mariano was set to marry his girlfriend of 10 years, Christie Azzolini, in 2021, according to an online obituary by his family. The couple met at a Pearl Jam concert.

Mariano's family has asked that donations be made in his name to the John Theissen Children's Foundation.