Olga D’Elia of Spring Lake, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, passed away Friday, April 30,2021 at Sunnyside Manor where she resided for the past four years. Olga was born in Stafford Springs, Connecticut on March 15, 1921. She and her family moved to Freehold, New Jersey in 1926. She attended local schools, including a genuine one room schoolhouse which she insisted was responsible for her future successes as a student and her becoming a life-long voracious reader. She graduated from Freehold High School in 1938, younger in age than her classmates, having skipped a grade. Too young by a year to enter nursing school, Olga took the bold move to leave home at seventeen to be a nurse’s assistant/intern at Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick, now the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. She had set a goal for a career in healthcare, and she was going to achieve it regardless of her age. Later in life, Olga often recalled having attended to the formidable Robert Wood Johnson II who was a patient at the hospital – the son of the founder of Johnson & Johnson and the hospital’s eventual namesake. Once 18, She entered nursing school and earned her Registered Nursing degree from the Ann May School of Nursing at Fitkin Memorial Hospital, now the Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. She graduated at the top of her class, proudly passed her State Exams on the first try and became the youngest Supervisor at Fitkin where she worked until she met her future husband just after the Second World War. During the War, Olga was an instructor in The U.S. Cadet Nurse’s Corp. She was a former member of The First Baptist Church in Freehold and the Rutherford Congregational Church.

Olga was predeceased by her husband, Dr. Arthur P. D’Elia, a dentist with practices in Jersey City and then Spring Lake, her daughter Marian K. D’Elia, her mother Katerine Gorbich, her father Dimitry Gorbich, her sister Helen Gorbich, her brothers Walter Gorbich and John Sperry and her son Robert’s former spouse, Janice D’Elia. Olga is survived by her two sons, four grandsons, two great granddaughters, her sister, Mary Kasprzak, and several nephews and nieces. Her son Robert A. D’Elia resides in Wall; his son Robert A. D’Elia, Jr., his wife Courtney and their child Juliette Claire reside in Maryland; his other son Matthew J. D’Elia, currently resides in Japan. Her other son, Arthur P. D’Elia, Jr. and his wife Barbara reside in Fairfield, CT, and Spring Lake; they have two sons and their families: Arthur P. D’Elia III, his wife Marianne Richard D’Elia and their daughter, Tatum Riley D’Elia reside in Michigan; Timothy J. D’Elia and his fiancée, Erin M. DeRiso reside in Maryland.

Olga and her husband lived and raised their three children in Rutherford, New Jersey and summered in Spring Lake for many years before moving “down the shore” in 1974 to their summer home. She always enjoyed hosting well-attended picnic parties at their home during the summer and capped off each summer season with a Labor Day breakfast party for the many friends she had. When raising her three children in Rutherford, she was always very active in PTA leadership roles and was typically “volunteered for” by her children to serve as a parent chaperone and nurse for many school-sponsored field trips. When her husband started his new practice in Spring Lake, she joined him as his nurse assistant, office manager and receptionist, all of which she enjoyed fully. Olga and Art were members of The Spring Lake Golf Club for decades.

Family and friends are invited to attend a visitation on Saturday, May 8 from 2 PM to 5 PM at the O’Brien Funeral Home, Hwy 35, at New Bedford Road, Wall, NJ 07719; 732-449-6900. Interment will be private at The Old Tennent Church Cemetery, Tennent at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Salvation Army at www.salvationarmynj.org/asburypark. To send condolences to the family, please visit www.obrienfuneralhome.com.