L'articolo descrive la vita di Mario DiCristofaro di Buffalo. DiCristofaro è nato a Pratola Peligna in Abruzzo. Da giovane, DiCristofaro lavorò come meccanico di camion in Italia e Venezuela. Durante la sua permanenza in Venezuela, imparò il mestiere di meccanico di elicotteri. Poco dopo che ritornò in Italia, conobbe sua moglie Rosa Sticca ed emigrano a Buffalo. DiCristofero era un ottimo meccanico ed ebbe un'officina meccanica che diventò una grande attività. Purtroppo, è morto due anni fa, ma il nome è ricordato oggi per la sua officina ed il suo talento.

Mario G. DiCristofaro, who owned and operated an auto collision shop in Buffalo, died December 12, 2021, at Millard Fillmore Hospital in Amherst from complications due to covid-19. He was 89.

Born in Pratola Peligna in the Abruzzo region of central Italy, DiCristofaro’s boyhood memories from WWII included diving into ditches for shelter as low-flying German airplanes sprayed machine gun rounds and dropped bombs on innocent, hard-working Italian men and women cultivating the farms and vineyards.

The family hid his father, Antonio DiCristofaro, from German troops who were rounding up local men for work camps, coercing them to work hard-labor tasks or face dire consequences of imprisonment, physical torture, and even execution for resisting the German oppressive demands. 

After his town of Pratola was liberated, DiCristofaro began working as a mechanic at the age of 12 for his father, who established a trucking business with surplus vehicles he bought from the U.S. Army. Young DiCristofaro was imparted with business acumen by Antonio, a forward-thinking entrepreneur and visionary in his small town.

During those early days, Italian fathers led the way with exemplary work habits, modeling vocational readiness and applications, while always striving for perfection using a motto of “Sempre fai le cose Giusti” or “You don’t do things right once-in-a-while. You do things right all-the-time.” This was a commonplace mantra articulated in most Italian households by fathers-to-sons. As a positive result, the sons learned all about hard work, toughness, commitment, and perseverance from their fathers. Vocational excellence was always the goal, and DiCristofaro intently absorbed those lessons and achieved an uncanny mechanical expertise.

When he was 16, DiCristofaro went to Caracus, Venezuela with his father and brother, Aldo. They returned to Italy a couple of years later. He trained as a helicopter mechanic and was employed by oil companies. He received several awards for his work. “They wouldn’t fly a helicopter unless they knew Mario had fixed it,” his son-in-law Joseph Ciminelli said.

DiCristofaro returned to his hometown in Italy in 1959 and worked again for his father’s trucking company, but he did not stay long. A young woman from a neighboring town, Rose Sticca, who was working for New Era Cap in Buffalo, heard about him. “One of her aunts showed her his picture,” Ciminelli said. “She went back and they met.” It was love at first sight, and it was a match made in Heaven.

They were married in Pratola Peligna. Afterwards, she returned to Buffalo, while DiCristofaro waited in Italy for six months until his American citizenship papers were finalized. When he was able to join her in Buffalo in 1960, Ciminelli said, “There was a big party, a couple hundred people. The aunts did all the cooking.” 

The Italian aunts prepared a wonderful and abundant assortment of mouth-watering Italian lasagna, homemade meatballs, sausage, peppers and onions, minestrone soup, and tasty Italian pastries (cannoli, chiacchiere, sfogliatelli, and pizzelle) to over 200 family members and paisani in festive attendance. It was confirmed that the Italian aunts who prepared the delicious Italian meal included the venerable likes of Aunt Maria Buccilli (married to Pietro), Aunt Mary Buccilli (married to Alberto), and Aunt Ragetta Buccilli (married to Antonio). 

DiCristofaro worked for six years for Laura Collision. Then, he opened his own shop, Metropolitan Collision Service, located on Military Road near Kenmore Avenue in Buffalo in 1966. He brought his brother, Bruno, over from Italy to assist him and teamed up with his brother-in-law, Frank Sticca, to handle business matters.

Metropolitan Collision was the exclusive repair shop for Budget Car Rental in Buffalo for 20 years. DiCristofaro witnessed was his father’s ingenuity during WWII and he intuitively implemented the same business strategy with Budget Car Rental in Buffalo as his father had done in Italy. Importantly, recognizing a scarcity of places to fix box trucks damaged in accidents, he built an addition to the shop that was tall enough to accommodate them. That structural improvement was key and enabled the American dream to become a reality for DiCristofaro, bettering himself and the future of his family.

“He took us back to Italy in the mid-1990s,” Ciminelli said, “an old, old man sees him and says, ‘This guy’s a magician. He can fix anything. Somebody would throw out a riding lawnmower, and the next day he’d have it fixed up.’” 

DiCristofaro also bought damaged limousines, Ciminelli added, repaired them and sold them to a local limousine service. He kept one of them, a Mercedes-Benz limousine van he acquired in Las Vegas, and used it to take his extended family on excursions. “That’s when he was happiest,” Ciminelli said, “when we would all pile into the van and go out.”

His son, Mario Jr., took over the operations in the repair shop after he retired in 1997, but he continued to work there, filling in for a sick employee as recently as last summer. 

Dominic Buccilli, Mario’s first cousin and an Italian immigrant as well, remembers growing up with the older Mario in their small town of Pratola Peligna during the early 1950s and beyond. “He was always a very active guy, full of energy. Mario was incredibly passionate about his mechanical craft and very much wanted to be a success [in America]. He worked well into his late 80s, but he just wouldn’t slow down.”

Bruno DiCristofaro, Mario’s younger brother who came over from Italy in 1966, praised Mario, saying: “I thank Mario for providing me and my family an opportunity for a better life in America. Mario showed a lot of courage, coming over to America and starting a collision business by himself. He is sorely missed by his family and friends.”

DiCristofaro was a member of the Pratola Peligna Italian Club, the Lake Erie Italian Club, and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. He built a bocce ball court behind his home in East Amherst.

In addition to his wife and son, survivors include two daughters, Susan Ciminelli and Lisa Rastelli; a sister, Josephine D’Andrea; his brother, Bruno; three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.