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Frank M Pinto SR
Frank M. Pinto Sr., 84, of Leechburg, died Tuesday, March 4, 2014, in West Haven
Manor, Washington Township, from complications of Parkinson's disease.
Born March 8, 1929, in Vandergrift, to Peter and Frances (Basile) Pinto.
He graduated from Vandergrift High School and received his undergraduate degree
in biology and social studies from Edinboro State College in 1951.
He pursued a teaching career, respected by fellow faculty members, the
administration and most admirably remembered fondly by his students as a
dedicated and successful teacher. After a year teaching social studies at
Worthington High School, the 1953-1954 school year, he joined the faculty at
Leechburg High School.
His honors include a scholarship in 1958 from Pittsburgh Plate Glass Foundation
for the purpose of studying botany, physics and zoology. That same year earned a
master's degree in education from Penn State University, University Park.
Between 1952 and 1953, he served in the Army stationed in Long Beach, Calif.,
and Tokyo, Japan, where he worked as a lab technician.
One of the personal highlights of his military service was when five of his
closest buddies from Vandergrift - also serving in the Armed Forces during the
Korean War - had a reunion in Tokyo, Japan.
Mr. Pinto was a leader in the Leechburg Area School District's sports programs.
He coached the junior high football team to an unbeaten season. He was an
assistant varsity football coach from 1954 to 1965 and was on staff for the
WPIAL Class A Championship in 1964 and the WPIAL Championship Class B in 1965.
He started the girls' softball program at the high school and was head coach
from 1977 to 1981. He was also the district's athletic director. He was inducted
into the Armstrong County Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
Mr. Pinto engaged in numerous hobbies including repairing televisions, building
and flying large-scale radio-operated model airplanes, and the activity for
which he was most proud, carving intricate, award-winning, to-scale decorative
duck decoys. A source of relaxation and fellowship.
Mr. Pinto became an accomplished golfer, spending weekends and after-school
hours at the Vandergrift Golf Course where he also served a club treasurer.
Playing cards was often included in the schedule.
Mr. Pinto served for more than 25 years on the Kiski Valley Water Pollution
Control Authority where he acted in various capacities, concluding his work as
the group's treasurer. He was known for his precise and logical advice on the
matters of concern to the Authority, and as one member notably said, "When Frank
said it was so, that was it."
Mr. Pinto is survived by his wife of 57 years, Barbara Rearick Pinto; two
children, Carol Pinto-Smith (Kevin), of Lower Burrell, and Frank M. Pinto Jr.
(Monica), of Ford City; four grandchildren, Justin Smith, Francesca Pinto
Gimigliano, Giovanna Pinto and Anthony Pinto; a great-granddaughter, Giulianna
Gimigliano; three sisters-in-law, Mary Pinto, Carol Kulling (Frank) and Diane
Pleva (Mark); and a brother-in-law, Larry Rearick (Maria).
He was preceded in death by two daughters, Karen and Patricia; his parents; and
three brothers, Michael, Joseph and Perry Pinto.
Family and friends welcome from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at CLAWSON
FUNERAL AND CREMATION CENTER, 170 Main St., Leechburg (724-842-1051), where
funeral ceremonies will be held at 10 a.m. Friday with the Rev. James H. Loew,
OSB, officiating.
Interment will be made at the convenience of his family in St. Gertrude
Cemetery, Allegheny Township, Vandergrift, Pa.
Arrangements by Clawson Funeral and Cremation Center, Leechburg, Pa. |
