John Zampieri didn’t care how long it took.
In the weeks after his January birthday, the former buildings commissioner and legislator was in his Ryegate home writing letters by hand. They were thank-yous for nearly 200 notes he had received — solicited by his daughters in a local paper — wishing him well and reflecting on how he’d inspired them.
“He never expected to receive that many,” daughter Rebecca Zampieri said.
But looking at his life in Vermont, it isn’t exactly a surprise.
Zampieri, the namesake of the state office building in Burlington, died Monday from advanced heart failure at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He was 80. Family members are still finalizing service details.
The lifelong Ryegate resident served in the House of Representatives from 1965 to 1985, when he was appointed to lead what would become the Department of Buildings and General Services. He served in that role under three governors until 1997, after congestive heart problems forced him to retire.
Former colleagues and his family described a passionate public servant who listened well and used his legislative experience to work for compromise.
“Sometimes to be a commissioner, you’ve got to be a social worker and a mediator and a psychologist combined into one,” said Essex County State’s Attorney and former Sen. Vince Illuzzi, who served in the Legislature during Zampieri’s administrative tenure.
“Because of his experience, I think he was able to do that quite well,” Illuzzi said. “Not every commissioner gets a building named after them, right?”
Zampieri, known as Zamp, was born in his childhood home in the village of South Ryegate on Jan. 19, 1941. He was a descendant of Italian immigrants who settled in the Caledonia County town to work in its granite industry. He held dual citizenship with Italy.
He attended high school across the Connecticut River in Woodsville, New Hampshire, and took on a career in insurance after graduation.
Zampieri won election to the House as a Democrat in 1965 at age 23, and his legislative skills “immediately impressed the leadership,” according to a speech made decades later by former Rep. Robert Wood.
He went on to chair the House Institutions and the Transportation committees in 1971 and 1975, respectively.
In 1969, he married Joyce Elizabeth Hudson. The couple had two daughters: Roxanna, 51, and Rebecca, 47, both of Ryegate.
Former Gov. Madeleine Kunin, who first tapped Zampieri to join the executive branch in 1985, said the decision to hire him was easy.
“I think his dedication to public service was such an example of what it means to work for the government and to be proud of it,” Kunin said.
She remembered talking with him early on about lining the walkways around the Statehouse with flowers.
“He sprang right into it,” she said. “He was enthusiastic, and every year the Statehouse looked beautiful.”
As commissioner, Zampieri oversaw infrastructure projects and improvements at state-owned buildings across Vermont.
His tenure saw the construction of the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport; the Ed Weed Fish Culture Station, a fish hatchery, in Grand Isle; and the Vermont Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Randolph Center.
He was also involved in opening the state office building at 108 Cherry St. in Burlington, which houses the Department of Health and would be dedicated to him in 1997.
“John’s real achievements were how he did things, not exactly what he did,” former Gov. Howard Dean said.
To Dean, Zampieri’s impact was “the legacy of decency he left.”
“He was cheerful. He was effective. He was efficient, and he always knew what he was talking about,” Dean said.
Dean added: “I never thought, ‘Oh God, here comes somebody who has more bad news.’ When he came through the door … he knew what the solution was.”
That made Zampieri “sort of the ideal public servant, from a governor’s point of view,” Dean said.
Gov. Phil Scott offered similar praise of the former official, calling him “kind, fair and pragmatic.”
Outside of work, Zampieri kept up his outgoing habits, his daughters said.
“Our dad loved people,” Roxanna Zampieri said. “He loved hearing their stories, and he enjoyed them no matter where he was, whether he was at the grocery, getting his car fixed.”
Last year’s era of social distancing was hard on him because he could no longer chat around town as he once would, Rebecca Zampieri said.
He was also proud to be from the Northeast Kingdom, and in state government he found a way to draw eyes to a region “that I think at times was very forgotten,” Roxanna Zampieri said.
“He was bringing attention to that area that wouldn’t have normally happened — a great improvement — and he was proud of that,” she said.
He had been hopeful in recent months, Illuzzi said, that he would recover.
The same heart problems that ended Zampieri’s career eventually took his life. On Saturday, he was admitted to Cottage Hospital in Haverhill, New Hampshire, before being transferred to Tufts in Boston.
Three years ago, when visiting the building bearing his name with his now 3-year-old grandson John, Zampieri told one of his daughters that most building dedications come after someone’s death.
”I’ve lasted a lot longer than they thought I would,” he said, laughing.
That was the attitude he always kept.
