Cattle die, and kinsmen die, and so one dies oneself. I know one thing that need not die: the fame of a dead man's deeds.

RONALD AMERICO PETROCCO SENIOR

Ronald was my father. He was born April 22, 1936. It is very fitting that his birthday happens also to be Earth Day on our modern calendar, for my father loved and respected the outdoors. 

Ronald died August 10, 2015. He died in Florida, where he had been living with his wife Frances for 35 years. For the last few years of his life he suffered from dementia. He left behind his wife, and also his son (myself) and his daughter, my sister Mariann.

Ronald was a man who accomplished things. He was a mechanic who fixed automobile engines, motorcycle engines, outboard motors, air conditioning systems, and factory equipment. He spent two years in the National Guard and fixed their airplanes. He was honorably discharged. Later he was a Marine Policeman who went out in boats onto stormy seas to rescue hapless mariners. He had a tow truck and went out in blizzards to rescue unlucky drivers. He took Boy Scouts out into the frozen woods in the middle of winter to learn how to survive in tents at 20 degrees below zero, Farenheit. Later in life he went flying in ultralights which he assembled with his own hands.

He paid for me to attend Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey, which at the time (1975 through 1979) had the unheard of tuition (for a high school) of 1200 dollars a year. Meanwhile he paid off a house in West Keansburg, New Jersey, and then another in Toms River, New Jersey. He owned and sold two gas stations, a Sunoco and a Mobil, both of which had bays with lifts for car repair. After moving to Florida he paid off a double-wide mobile home in Kissimmee, and a house in Fort Myers, and a condominium in Winter Haven. On top of all of that, he found a way to accumulate over half a million dollars in annuities to pay for him and his wife to live comfortably in their final years, which they were doing, at Osprey Lodge, an assisted living facility in Tavares, Florida, when my father passed away. 

Osprey needed two buses to carry all the mourners to my father’s funeral, though he had lived among these elderly, ailing people for less than a year, suffering from dementia the entire time. He had sat each day on a chair near the entrance to the Lodge, waving hello and good-bye to people as they came and went, and with each wave of his hand, he touched a heart. He had, after all, for his entire adult life, been a man who worked with his hands. 

While still living in West Keansburg, in his Mobil station one day, Ronald decided to rescue a stray dog, a mutt with some Welsh Corgi in him, whom he eventually brought home, named Butchie, and incorporated into his family as a beloved new member. When Butchie passed, Ronald brought home another dog, not a stray this time. She was a poodle, whom we named Bridget. Poodles don't shed, and this was good for my sister, who was allergic. It is a noble thing to bring pets into one’s home and give them love.

My father was a man who accomplished things. It is good to remember what he did, and speak of these things, especially with people who never knew him, that the fame of his deeds might spread.

This photo is of Ronald and his wife Frances on their wedding day, the 4th of May, 1957, four years before I was born.