Mario C. Angelini.

Mario C. Angelini, long-time resident of the Near West Side community and most recently of Oak Park, IL, died on Oct. 3. He was 87 years old.

Mr. Angelini was the husband of Joan H. (nee Hochstatter); father of John (Mary) and Mark (Katie Kelly) Angelini; devoted grandfather of Kara and Erin Angelini; and son of the late John and Assunta Angelini.

Donald Costello, PhD., former professor of English and American Studies at University of Notre Dame, who was a friend of Mr. Angelini’s for 56 years, served as the eulogist at his Funeral Mass. “Mario had a genius for friendship, as he had for so much else,” recalled Costello. He recalled his first meeting with Mr. Angelini at Orchestra Hall in 1953. “My wife, Christine and I walked into the gallery, up to the spot where the seats hugged the roof and where one was close to the stars. Sitting in the seat next to ours was the handsomest young man I had ever seen, with the lady-killing good looks and the exquisite charm that identified him as what one meant when one said the word ‘Italian.’

“This was no accidental meeting. Our mutual friend Walter Kelly had bought music-loving and student-poor Christine and me season tickets to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and placed us in seats next to the regular every-Thursday Mario, because, Walter said, ‘You three must know one another, it will last.’ And it did!”

Soon afterwards, Mr. Angelini met his future wife, Joan Hochstatter of Mendota. Mr. and Mrs. Angelini were married for 53 years.

Over the years, the friendships among the four grew and included visits to every museum, art movie theatre, and nearly every Italian restaurant in Chicago. “It was nonstop talk and laughs,” Costello said. “We had what one can only call as a friendship of compatible souls. And, we talked about souls too, about religion, about Chicago and its troubles, and about the world as we loved it, endured it,
worried about it.

“Mario was interested in everything good and holy and beautiful. He held fast to his principles of good and of God. (His) was a world of ‘famiglia’, of friendship, tradition, beauty. To that world he was loyal, steadfast, loving and always, always, so charming…so Italian.”

Mr. Angelini was born in Italy and arrived at Chicago’s Near West Side community when he was seven years old. He graduated from John H. McClaren Elementary School, Crane Technical High School, and Loyola University of Chicago. He worked most of his career at Lake Superior Newsprint and also was employed at McCall’s magazine and Mead publishing. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, designing airstrips using the drafting skills he learned while at Crane Tech. As if it were a scene from a Frank Capra movie, he returned home from the war to his parents’ home unannounced on Christmas Day 1945.

“Dad’s world very much included the community dearest to his heart, ‘Little Italy,’” recalled his son Mark Angelini. “He truly loved its people and its institutions. He wore out countless pairs of shoes walking through the neighborhood every day he lived there and spent countless hours volunteering his time to help at Notre Dame de Chicago Church, Midtown (Madonna) Center, Saint Ignatius, and the University Village Association.

“He was always there to lend a hand and say a kind word of support and roll up his sleeves too help his family, his neighbors, and the places that make a neighborhood a home. He taught my brother, John, and me what to value in life, to be there for those who need help and to humbly do what is right,” added Mark Angelini. John Angelini served for many years as sacristan at Notre Dame de Chicago Church, where his parents were married. Mr. Angelini and his wife, Joan, would help John prepare the church for services and help with holiday decorations.

They also were active together for many years in support of the former Notre Dame de Chicago Academy. Mr. Angelini was an accomplished photographer and took hundreds of photos of the Near West Side from the 1940s through the 2000s, and which later were donated to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) archives.

Visitation and a Funeral Mass were held at St. Giles Catholic Church. Entombment is at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside, IL.