Last of the Greatest Generation
John Anthony Regalbuto was born, as he liked to say, on 1-2-33 (January 2, 1933) and died peacefully surrounded by family on October 8, 2025 at the age of 92. He was the youngest and last surviving of eight children of Filippo and Carmela (Pellegrino) Regalbuto, who had emigrated from Mistretta, Sicily to Little Italy in Cleveland in 1912. He was preceded in death in 2017 by his wife of 61 years, Carole Darlene Zachman Regalbuto.
John and Carole were an amazing couple, having four children in five years, and this while John was obtaining his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Princeton University. The four children who survive John, Mary Jean, John Robert (Monica), David Philip (Carrie Olmsted), and Michael Anthony (Deborah), are three engineers and a scientist who married three engineers and a scientist. John had eleven grandchildren and seven (and counting) great-grandchildren at his passing.
John had a lifelong passion for things mechanical, the first being aircraft. He regretted being too young to serve in World War II and admired his older siblings who did, including his sister Mary Regalbuto Jones who was a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP). John began his career working on Sikorsky helicopters, and after his graduate degree, worked on F16 fighter jets at General Dynamics in Ft. Worth, Texas. He eventually applied his metallurgy expertise to develop explosives for the oil industry at Jet Research Center in Arlington, Texas, and later for defense contractor Textron Systems in Wilmington, MA. While he left aircraft in his professional work, they were his dearest hobby; his production of free flying and scale model airplanes was truly prodigious. Flying sessions with his cronies in the Flying Aces Stealth Squadron #49 modeling club were the highlight of his month; he shared his love for modeling – flying sessions were keenly anticipated by the children in their youth. At the age of 85, his ingenious design of a contra-rotating propeller led to two patents and two technical publications.
John’s other mechanical proclivity was automotive. To afford each new child, he explained, he would restore an old car for handsome profit. At one time the garage (and driveway) in Ft. Worth held a total of eight automobiles, including his meticulously restored and award winning 1949 MG TC, another old MG TD mostly hanging on the walls, an assortment of later model sedans and sports cars, a pickup truck, and a welded-up frame he designed for a three-wheeler. The kids were thoroughly schooled in do-it-yourself automobile upkeep and on-the-road repairs. “Every trip’s an adventure!” their father would say. He helped oversee the kids’ fleet of two MGB GTs, one MGB, and a Triumph TR6.
John and Carole spent their retirement in Georgetown, Massachusetts. John exchanged his antique MG for a bright red Ferrari 308, perfect for the wooded, curvy roads of New England. Many dear friends made it down to John’s favorite wintering spot on Grand Cayman Island. Since 2018, John lived with his children either in South Carolina (winters) or Michigan (summers).
He will be interred next to Carole in Harmony Cemetery in Georgetown, following a funeral mass at St. Mary’s church (94 Andover St, Georgetown, MA 01833) at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, October 31. A celebration of John’s life will be held for friends and family at Camp Denison (84 Nelson St., Georgetown, MA 01833) following the interment. Donations in John’s name can be made to Friends of Camp Denison at that address.
