Herb was born April 24th, 1934, in Boston, MA, the fifth of seven children of Adelina Del Cupolo and Mauro Di Gioia. He was a proud first-generation Italian American. He spoke Italian at home, growing up in immigrant neighborhoods of Boston (Brighton) and East Cambridge, and learned English at school and at the movies, which he loved.

When he was thirteen the family moved to Brookline, MA. He graduated from Brookline High School in 1951 and enrolled at Boston University. A few years later, he left university and followed a friend to Europe, where he traveled for two years. While there, Herb spent a year working as a cook in Southern France, in the coastal town of Sanary-sur-mer.

Called home to do his military service, Herb spent two years in the army, where he was stationed in Germany. Upon returning home to Boston, he met his lifelong partner and love, Rita Constantino. They were married in June of 1960 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and their first child arrived the next year. Rita urged Herb to finish his degree at B.U. (BA), which he did while driving a cab at night to make ends meet.

Upon graduation, he was offered a position teaching languages at St. Johnsbury Academy in northern Vermont. He and Rita quickly fell in love with the “Northeast Kingdom”. In 1965, they bought a crumbling old house surrounded by farmland high atop a ridge, with hand hewn beams and plank walls. They were told it had been a stagecoach stop between Boston and Montreal. It was to become their Shangri-La for the next half century.

Herb took a position as head of the language department at nearby Lyndon State College. Rural life suited them – they threw themselves into restoring their home, gardening, cooking, preserving, fishing, and raising their brood of children, which had grown to four by 1967. Their friends were college students and professors, farmers and loggers, artists, poets, and “back to the landers” – hippies and others who'd “dropped out” of the rat race, arriving in rural Vermont in the '60's and 70's to start families, farms, and communes, in search of the good life.

Herb had always loved film. At Rita's urging, he began applying to graduate programs in California. In 1969, they loaded the family into a self-converted camper van --- mattresses on a plywood base, kids on top, belongings underneath-- and set out for California. There, Herb was accepted into UCLA's ethnographic film program, (MFA), under Director Colin Young. With little money beyond the GI bill, the family lived on the beach, side by side with surfers, for the first month, fishing or harvesting mussels when groceries were scarce. They finally found a tiny cottage in Malibu that had been abandoned to the prior family's dog and persuaded the owners to rent it to them. Together he and Rita, armed with bleach, gloves and garbage bags, turned it into a home. The dog, Dimitri, a smart and affectionate Samoyed, became a beloved part of the family.

At UCLA , Herb met David Hancock, a fellow film student whose wife, Sally Blodgett, had grown up in Northern Vermont. They bonded over their mutual love for the area, and began working together on their graduate film project, which would be shot, over the next two years, in the Northeast Kingdom.

Herb was 36 when he began studying film in 1969. When anti-war protests broke out in Los Angeles, he and his fellow students rushed out to cover them. He told stories of donning a jacket and tie so he could blend with the journalists, filming student marches and police violence through teargas, while running backwards, weighed down with gear.

Herb and David became pioneers in the field of observational cinema. From 1971-75, the two created the film series “Vermont People”, documenting the lives of ordinary Vermonters in an intimate and unvarnished style. When they ran out of money while working on the first film, they took jobs with Chester Grimes, a 70-year-old logger who still worked with horses. Their second film featured Grimes and drew enough notice to land Grimes a photo spread in National Geographic. Herb would say they made the film, “with a chain saw in one hand and a camera in the other”.

In summer of 1972, he and David took on a documentary project in the small village of Aq Kupruk in Northern Afghanistan. There, together with Louis Dupree, Nancy Dupree, & Josephine Powell, they made the series “Faces of Change: Afghanistan”. The films are a portrait of rural Afghan life, shot before the Russian invasion.

After David's tragic and untimely death at age 30, Herb turned his focus to teaching film, beginning in 1975 at the University of Illinois in Chicago. In 1982 he was invited by director Colin Young to create the documentary department at Great Britain's National Film and Television School. Herb was a central figure at the school, where he taught for 12 years. He shaped a generation of Europe's documentary filmmakers, trained anthropologists in filmmaking techniques, and fostered ethnographic sensibilities among his students.

Herb was a colorful character, a celebrated cook and host, and loved nothing more than a good meal and good conversation shared with family and friends. He loved teaching and was beloved by his students and colleagues. While living in England he took up the hobby of antique clock repair. He and Rita would scour jumbles, antique shops, and boot sales for clocks and pocket watches, which he would painstakingly restore. In Vermont, he was devoted to his vegetable gardens, his homemade pickles and sauerkraut, and became an enthusiastic bread baker late in life, after Rita gave it up. He loved his wife, family, longtime friends, his community, and the arts. He was passionate about Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, film, opera, jazz, poetry, and literature. He and Rita loved to travel, making many trips to Italy and Spain, during their dozen years in England, an activity that continued into their retirement years.

Herb is survived by his beloved wife Rita, children David (Larinda), Diana (Melody), Maura (Keith), and Dante (Maria), and grandchildren Timar Smith, Zachary Trzcinski, Cornelia, Aidan, Johanna, and Giana Di Gioia, his sister Elena Lepore, his brother George and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by brothers Frank and Gino, and sisters Filomena Lepore and Leonarda Calabro.

A celebration of his life will be held in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom at a later date. Donations can be made in memory of Herbert Di Gioia, to Catamount Arts P.O. Box 324, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819

So sorry to hear about the passing of Herb. He taught me at the NFTS in the UK. A huge character. Thoughts to his family. Steve

I was one of Herb's documentary students at the National Film School in the UK in the late '80s. Perhaps a rather immature 22 year old at the time in retrospect he had a profound effect on my attitude to film making and life in general. Herb was a man with a strong moral compass, and a very pure approach to documentary making, something which is perhaps often difficult to live up to in a commercially pressured situation. I'm now living as an organic sheep farmer in France, and sometimes think this is perhaps also due to Herb's influence. I'm profoundly grateful to the man, and know that his passing will be mourned by all who have had the privilege to have known him.

Bless you Herb, sorry to hear you've gone. I will always remember you and my dad, David Hancock and Heimu Llappaleinen - the original gangsters - sat around the living room table well into the night laughing all the time and speakng so fondly of all they knew. I wish I coud be with you all for the celebration but please know that in this little corner of London, he's sadly missed xxX

Hello Rita, Just to share deep condolences with you , the children and all the family. I will allways remember Herb's teaching (and his films) oup at NFTS, Vermont people through his eyes, his warm support and dedication to direct cinema. Thanks for the obituary. I had forgotten about the clocks ( I think I contributed to a danish one myself) and Rita, I lost your delicious brownie recipee but still remember their taste! Sorry I did not get to visit Herb after film school...Love to all of you people ! Anne Connan Anne Connan

Bless you Herb, sorry to hear you've gone. I will always remember you and my dad, David Hancock and Heimu Llappaleinen - the original gangsters - sat around the living room table well into the night laughing all the time and speakng so fondly of all they knew. I wish I coud be with you all for the celebration but please know that in this little corner of London, he's sadly missed xxX

So sorry to hear about Herb, who taught me filmmaking on a special programme for anthropologists at NFTS, Beaconsfield in 1986-7. He had a wonderful life and leaves a huge legacy. My love and condolences to Rita and the family.

Dearest Rita & family, Herb was bigger than life itself for most of his life. I’m deeply saddened by his passing and hoping you will find comfort and peace with the rich treasure chest of memories he has left behind. Remembering… John &I had hitchhiked down the west coast to meet up with you in Malibu. From then on and for the next forty years we became part of your family:) Lots of Love to you Rita - Bonny & family

A blessed man. We should all be as adventurous as Herbert. Sympathies to family and friends (especially Maura/Keith)

Sending love and care to Diana and Melody and their beloved family. May your father's spirit live on in all of you. Lynn and Emily

WOW! What an incredible life Herb experienced. I’m so grateful to know Herb through Maura and Keith. My deepest condolences to all who know and love Herb. I’m praying with and for you all at this difficult time. Blessings, David