Angelo Asciolla; fought for consumer rights, environment

Mr. Asciolla took the car back and asked for a replacement. When the dealers denied that his car was a dud, he headed to court, took the plates off his Oldsmobile, let it sit, and went back to driving his 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix.

Five years later, in 1978, Mr. Asciolla won his case in the New Hampshire Supreme Court and a new car, contributing to rights for consumers who bought lemons, or defective vehicles.

“He didn’t look at it like he was doing anybody else a favor,’’ said his daughter Jacqueline Gacek of Rye Beach, N.H.. “He just was mad. He paid for a good car, he paid cash, and he wanted a good car.’’

Angelo “A.J.’’ Asciolla, a resourceful motel owner, died of heart disease at the Hyder Hospice House in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 30. He was 96.

Mr. Asciolla was an example of a consumer battling for rights against defective cars, a lemon law attorney said.

“The impact is huge, because it got everybody asking the question: ‘How can we improve the law so people can get what they paid for?’ ’’ said Craig Kimmel, a lemon law attorney based in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Asciolla was born and raised in Providence. During the Great Depression, he dropped out in his junior year of high school to support his family.

The oldest of six children, Mr. Asciolla raised rabbits to make more money.

In exchange for violin lessons, he read newspapers aloud to his Italian mother to help teach her English.

Mr. Asciolla later took up the accordion and had a fondness for the theme to “Doctor Zhivago.’’

“You could tell by the music he played that he was a romanticist,’’ said his daughter.

Mr. Asciolla taught his daughter to read music.

“He made me walk around reading the notes, even before I had the piano,’’ she said.

He also taught Jacqueline to drive a ’36 Ford through back roads.

“If you put your hand out the window, you would touch the trees,’’ she said.

On pre-superhighway drives in the winter, Mr. Asciolla created a defrosting system using a fan, candle, and gas heater. His daughters and wife would pile into the car with a big basket of food and a few bricks heated in the oven to keep warm.

Mr. Asciolla was a cabinetmaker and carpenter at an early age. He built a hope chest for his mother when he was a teenager.

Mr. Asciolla later took courses in drafting, design, and aeronautics at Brown University. He landed a stint at a shipyard in Rhode Island and another as an air-raid warden during World War II.

After the war, Mr. Asciolla and his brother Victor bought and renovated a cabin colony and restaurant on Lake Winnisquam in New Hampshire, where they later added a motel. Mr. Asciolla operated the Lord Hampshire Motel and Cottages there for more than 55 years. Mr. Asciolla worked seven-day weeks until he retired at age 89.

“He was a doer,’’ said his sister, Barbara George of Lincoln, R.I.

When algae cropped up in Lake Winnisquam, Mr. Asciolla sued to force the city to clean its sewage disposal system, putting a stop to the problem.

He started the New Hampshire Motel Association, which merged to become the New Hampshire Hotel-Motel Assoc- iation, his daughter said. As the organization’s president, he helped distribute scholarships to promising hospitality students.

His daughter described Mr. Asciolla as reserved, private, and modest.

“He didn’t do a lot of bragging. He took it in stride.’’

In addition to his daughter and sister, he leaves another daughter, Sandra Richardson of Albuquerque; another sister, Margaret LeBlanc of North Providence, R.I.; a brother, Mario of Cranston, R.I.; three granddaughters; and four great-grandchildren. His wife of 55 years, Josephine (DeCellio), died in 1992.

A funeral Mass will be said today at 5 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul in Providence. His body has been cremated, and a memorial service will be held in June.