Obituary of Gilbert Ronald Capaldi

Mr. Gilbert Ronald Capaldi (“Ronnie”), of Melbourne, passed away on Friday, January 5, 2018 at the age of 83. Gilbert was born June 7, 1934 in Providence to parents Emilio and Rosilda Capaldi. He developed his outgoing nature growing up in a house shared with aunts, uncles and cousins. His fascination with cars grew from spending many hours at his dad’s filling station. His love of football started as a player at Hope High school. He graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in electrical engineering. Here he started acting on his management skill running the TKE fraternity house. In 1957 he served as first Lieutenant in the Army Reserves in Washington, DC, where he met and married the love of his life, Mary. A wonderful family man he had two sons, Stephen and Gregory. He started his 43 year career of dedication and hard work in the defense industry with Sperry Rand at the Portsmouth New Hampshire shipyard. He was recognized as a Polaris submariner. Concurrently obtaining a masters degree in engineering management at Northeastern University. This led to teaching night MBA classes at New Hampshire College for 16 years. In 1984 a his career turned south transplanting the family in Melbourne Beach, FL. Known as “Cap” to friends and workmates, he worked alongside Naval buddies for Lockheed Martin at Port Canaveral. This required many days at sea, traveling north to Scotland, or south to Brazil. He was an avid golf and tennis player. He loved the great outdoors, his dog Tippy, and working, teaching and meeting people from all over the world. He always lived near the beach and his affinity for the sea was shared with his grandson, Cullen. A mass will be held 12 pm on January 16 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Melbourne FL.