Philip S. Cifarelli - Early Life

Early Life

Dr. Cifarelli was born in his parent's New York City home on July 18, 1935. The son of an Italian immigrant father, Dr. Cifarelli spent his youth in Jackson Heights, New York. In 1952 at 16 years of age he entered the Mens Light-Heavyweight Division of the Golden Gloves Boxing league where he earned an impressive winning record over a short boxing career in which he was never knocked down and lost only one bout. Throughout his young adulthood Dr. Cifarelli spent time working in the Roman Bronze Works foundry, the oldest and longest running foundry in America, in Brooklyn, New York, which was owned and operated by his maternal uncle and which produced some of the most notable bronze sculptures of the 20th Century, including the Heisman Trophy, the statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., the Iwo-Jima Memorial In Washington, D.C., the statue of Atlas at Rockefeller Center, New York and many other iconic pieces. It was there where Dr. Cifarelli developed an interest in bronze sculpture that lasted throughout his lifetime.