Ronald Diodati
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Obituary for Ronald Ralph Diodati

Ronald Ralph  Diodati
Blue Hill, ME -- Ronald Diodati died on the evening of Sunday, February 12, at the start of a big snow he would have been sorry to miss. In our dreams, we’ll hear him singing.

Ron was born in Methuen, Massachusetts, in the house his grandfather built, to Marie (Victor) and Rafaele Diodati, on the seventh day of the seventh month in 1926. Mary could make a high-flying kite out of newspaper and sticks, and Ralph had a knuckle ball no one could hit. Ron, the eldest of three sons, absorbed their sense of fun, love of adventure, and indomitable spirit.

Ron and his neighborhood pals, who remained life-long friends, roamed the thick woods, made forts, picked blueberries—surely tons—played kick the can, and braved Mr. Slayter’s billy goat to retrieve errant baseballs. Elementary school was the Stephen Barker School; Miss Parker, and the Cunliffe sisters, were the teachers he remembered for a lifetime.

Ron graduated from the Edward F. Searles High School in 1944, and immediately joined the Navy. (He would have preferred the Marines, in which nine of his cousins from one family served, but Mary had other ideas.) By the time he left boot camp, the war was winding down, and Ron served on the USS Honolulu, off the East Coast, and then near Philadelphia, where their mission was to decommission the USS San Francisco. On leave, FC3c Diodati, and shipmates Ski, Debo and Harry Burton Boyd, frequented the Bowery and McSorley’s Old Ale House, which was listed in Ron’s address book until the end.

When released from active duty, Ron went to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he earned an associate degree from St. Petersburg Junior College, boxed as an undefeated Golden Gloves welterweight, rode (and dumped) his Harley, plagued his grandparents, met his first wife, and fished and crabbed with his future father-in-law. Next was a B.S from Northeastern and then a master’s degree in microbiology from UMass Amherst, where he had a room in Edna Skinner’s house (they became fast friends), while his young wife roomed at the Lord Jeffrey Amherst Inn and waited on Robert Frost. Dental school at Tufts followed, where his first child was a frequent ‘practice patient’ in the school clinic. After graduating from Tufts in 1957, Ron earned his MSD from the University of Nebraska Dental School in Pedodontics.

Dr. Diodati was in the private practice of Pedodontics in Beverly, Massachusetts, from 1959 until 1994. He was a member of the cleft palate team operating out of Salem, Massachusetts, for years. He continued as an independent provider until 2002. There has never been a better children’s dentist, and that’s a fact.

Dr. D. was Professor Emeritus at Boston University, School of Graduate Dentistry, retiring in 1993 after 30 years. He served 32 years in the U.S. Naval Reserve, retiring as a Captain in 1986. He was a life member of the Naval Reserve Association, the Reserve Officers Association, the Military Officers Association, the American Legion, China Post #1 (in exile), and the National Rifle Association. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Health, the Robert R. Andrews Honor Society, and the American Academy of Pedodontics. He was a member of the Society of the Sigma Xi, Mensa, and Intertel, as well as a happy member of the Old Fogeys Club, and the SPEBSQSA (he sang lead).

Ron was a friend to rattlesnakes, ravens and raccoons, and he was a horse, dog and cat whisperer as well. He worked from his earliest years—he could milk a goat, hypnotize and dispatch a chicken, plumb a bathroom, wire a house, and build a barn. His teenage years included typical hijinks, like singing under streetlights, and rounding corners in a Studebaker while hanging off the ‘suicide doors’, but also work in the Arlington Mill, the Palace Theater, at Jerry’s chicken farm and for a furrier in Lawrence. He worked construction, was a member of the New England 4,000-Footers Club, took a jump from a plane for his 50th birthday, and was a Boy Scout troop leader (Camp Onway!) and a Navy Expert pistol shooter.

Daddy could skin a chipmunk or muskrat (dead of natural causes), sew a dress or a jacket without a pattern, knit, bone a chicken, bake a blueberry pie, make beer bread, cook pancakes and bacon in the rain, make a doll house, drive a pony cart, and lead a hike in the rain or a blizzard carrying a 60 lb. pack. Grandpa Chief could make snowshoes, baby moccasins, or a Sioux headdress, patch a broken bowl, make wedding bands out of silver coins, and bake pizzelles and wedding cakes. He was a sculptor, a leather-worker, an inveterate sketcher, a poet and a writer of stories.

His four daughters and eldest granddaughter, plus many nieces, nephews, and family friends, counted on him in a canoe, on a mountain trail, around many a campfire, in a horse ring, or in a fancy restaurant. He never missed a game, or a meet, or a chance to say "I love you, kiddo". He was his girls' biggest fan.

He was a ‘humanist and a raconteur, knew how to laugh, and loved life’ according to colleague Dr. Mark Caddell. He sang, whistled, and played a mean boogie woogie. “Beat me, Daddy, 8 to the bar.” Ron had a private pilot’s license, was an avid skier, a dyed-in-the-wool Yankee, and tapped his own maple trees with his own handmade taps. The "Wide-Mouthed Frog" was among his favorite jokes.

Among countless beloved family and friends who have gone on before are his parents, Ralph and Mary, a brother, Reginald, son-in-law Tom Reilly, three fine horses, a funny goat, and several dogs, cats and fish.

Left behind are four daughters, Cynthia Reilly of Sedgwick, Maine, Erika and husband Mitchell Daigle of Scarborough, Maine, Helena and husband Jamal Thorne of Boston, Massachusetts, and Clara Diodati of Scarborough, Maine; the son he never had, Will Lacey, and wife Lori, of Salisbury, Massachusetts; three grandchildren, Meghan and husband Andrew Birdsall of Penobscot, Maine, and Taylor and Thea Mary Daigle of Scarborough; three great-grandchildren, Andrew Charles, Mary Isabel and Henry Jacob Birdsall of Penobscot; brother Ralph Drew and wife Becky of Dawsonville, Georgia; former wives, Leslie Diodati of Sedgwick, Maine, and Mary Jane Lowe of Scarborough, Maine, and Dover, New Hampshire; special friend, Jo Ann Trabucco; sisters-in-law Ingrid Diodati, Jeanne Henry Pierpont, Cathy Herbert and Anne L’Heureaux, and brother-in-law Mike Carroll, and wife Kelly; nine nieces and nephews; his best friend Tobias the Duke of Abruzzi; Assunta the Evil One; and legions of cousins, second cousins, and friends from all over the globe, across the generations and from all walks of life.

Instead of flowers, anyone so inclined might consider a donation to the American Legion, China Post #1, the Navy League Foundation, the Shapleigh Maine Rescue Squad or the Animal Welfare Society of West Kennebunk, Maine.

Remembrances may be left at www.jordanfernald.com.

Burial will be in Methuen, in the spring, when the lilacs and tulips are in bloom.

"Do your best, stick your landings, don’t pull your punches, never, ever, give up, and always remember to brush and floss." Thank you, Daddy.
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