Corzo Contracting Co., Inc. (Corzo) was founded in New York State in July, 1986 by the late Manuel and Gloria W. Lema. Corzo is an underground utility construction company which provides paving and underground conduit system installation services to: utilities, real estate management firms, municipalities and other companies in the private sector.
Mr. Manuel (Manny) Lema was born in Galicia, Spain. As a young boy, Manny was a farmer and in his teenage years he worked as an apprentice under the guidance of a seasoned carpenter. In 1964, after serving in the Spanish and Dutch Navy, he immigrated to the United States and found work as a laborer/form setter for Columbia Asphalt in Willets Point, NY. In 1979, Manny became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Manny was well known and respected in the New York City construction industry and worked for such construction firms as: Columbia Asphalt Corp. (later known as Willets Point Asphalt Corp.), Complete Conduit & Pipe Co., and Trocom Construction. During his employment with these companies, he was involved with much of the work completed at the World’s Fair, as well as: major highway restorations, new road building, curb and inner-city street restorations, excavating, drainage, manholes, precast and manhole grades.
Gloria Lema was a native of Puerto Rico. After graduating from La Academia de Santa Teresita in Puerto Rico, she returned to New York in 1963; where she attended the Wood Secretarial School in New York City. Over the next two decades, Gloria worked for: The Bendix Corporation, Continental Oil Company, GEICO, Hofstra Law School and Datamedic Corporation. In all these companies, she worked as an executive secretary for upper management executives. She was a bilingual interpreter for Community Legal Assistance Corp., an off-campus clinical program for Hofstra Law School third year law students and attorneys to assist low-income earners who needed affordable legal services. At Datamedic Corp. where she was employed for ten years, she was the executive assistant to the president, Peter L. Fetterolf who later promoted her to the position of Marketing and Sales Coordinator working for him and for the Vice President of Marketing and Sales.
All three Lema children have been involved with the company since its inception. Rose D. Lema-Medina, James M. Lema, and Barbara Panariello began working on weekends while they were in school and whenever possible throughout the summers. Rose graduated from Katherine Gibbs and worked full time as an executive budget coordinator for the Director/Global Head of E-Commerce Initiatives and Global Market Derivatives at Deutsche Bank of North America in NYC until September 2004. James attended Mitchell College in Connecticut and both he and Barbara graduated with Bachelor of Arts degrees from Adelphi University. Additionally, Barbara holds a Master of Science degree in Education from Hofstra University. She attended New York University in Spain, La Universidad de Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain and Middlebury College in Vermont, USA and Madrid, Spain.