[1] After a two-year battle with cancer, Scoppetta died on March 24, 2016, at a hospice of Bellevue Hospital next door to the N.Y.C.
By the time he was four years old, his parents turned him and his two older brothers, Tony and Vincent, over to the city's care, initially in a shelter on 104th Street.
At first, the three boys were separated, he said, but they were reunited a year or so later by a chance encounter at the dentist's office, where his brother Tony recognized him.
In 1959 he was awarded a New York State Regents Scholarship and attended Brooklyn Law School at night while working in the criminal courts during the day assisting in the investigation and prosecution of cases in which children had been abused or neglected.
In 1971, he served as Associate Counsel to the Knapp Commission, which investigated corruption in the New York City Police Department.
In 1972, he served for a brief time as Deputy Independent Counsel in the investigation and prosecution of a former Special Assistant to President Richard Nixon.
On January 11, 1996, Giuliani announced the creation of the Administration for Children's Services and appointed Scoppetta the agency's first commissioner.
ACS was the city's first independent agency devoted entirely to services for children, with a commissioner reporting directly to the mayor.
He served on numerous boards of other not-for-profit institutions and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.