New Rochelle resident Richard Nasti has been knighted by Italy.
The attorney and former chairman of Stony Brook University received the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, Cavaliere (Knight) from Consul General Natalia Quintavalle in the Italian Consulate in New York. Quintavalle bestowed the honor on behalf of the president of Italy Giorgio Napolitano, because of Nasti’s accomplishments in Italian and Italian-American causes.
Nasti served as chairman of Stony Brook for 14 years, then joined the school’s foundation board. He has been “instrumental in the success of Stony Brook’s Center for Italian Studies,” and leads an advisory board providing strategic direction for the center, a notice on Stony Brook’s website says.
He was also instrumental in setting up the first endowed chair in arts and sciences at Stony Brook, the Alfonse M. D’Amato Endowed Chair in Italian Studies, the website says.
When he received the decoration on Saturday, Nasti called it “certainly one of the highlights of my life.”
Nasti is a summa cum laude graduate of Stony Brook University and received his law degree in 1981 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. He served as staff counsel to U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato and served in the administration of President Ronald Reagan as regional administrator of the Urban Mass Transportation
Administration.
Since 1987, he has been senior vice president and general counsel of the real estate development firm H.J. Kalikow & Co in New York City.
Former Sen. D’Amato attended the ceremony Saturday. Others present included Peter Kalikow, former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; former Ambassador Charles Gargano; Stony Brook President Samuel L. Stanley and Stony Brook Provost Dennis Asssanis.
Mr. Nasti lives in New Rochelle, New York with his wife, Maura, and two children, Brian and Julia.
Photo shoes Richard Nasti with Italian Consul General Natalia Quintavalle in the Italian Consulate in New York.
