A longtime local Italian teacher will be honored as the 2016 Southington Unico Gold Medal of Honor recipient next month. Alphonse D’Angelo will receive the honor at the Gold Medal Award Dinner at the Aqua Turf Club on May 17. He taught at Southington High School for more than 30 years and helped start the school’s Italian-language program. “I certainly am thrilled,” he said. “I’ve had a very good life.”

D’Angelo’s grandparents emigrated from Italy in 1875 and were the third Italian family to settle in town. His father came from Italy to Southington in 1911 and grew up in a home on Bristol Street. D’Angelo graduated from Boston College and taught French at the University of Connecticut. He later worked at Southington High School as a substitute teacher, before becoming a full-time French and ancient history teacher in 1963.