Braddock man epitomized Italian-American volunteerism
Ralph Carmen Hartford had an Anglo surname and never set foot on Europe’s most famous boot, but it’s hard to imagine a truer Italian spirit than that within the lifelong Braddock resident.
Mr. Hartford volunteered for decades for the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, including service as its national president for more than a decade starting in the late 1990s. He was a backstage powerhouse behind Italian Day at Kennywood, back when it was the West Mifflin amusement park’s biggest event.
“He was one of the oldtimers that kept the ItalianAmerican traditions strong in Pittsburgh,” said Guy Costa, Pittsburgh’s chief operations officer. “He will be missed.”
Mr. Hartford’s nephew, Gary Hartford, used to talk with him about taking a trip to the Old Country. “‘Why don’t we just go — take a month, go back, see where your parents came from?’” Gary Hartford recounted Tuesday. “It never materialized.”
Maybe he didn’t have to go back, because he enjoyed so much of the old country right here.
Mr. Hartford’s parents, Raffael Alfieri and Savarina Esposito, came from the town of Cicciano, not far from Naples, and settled on Corey Avenue, on the edge of Braddock. She ran a household while he ran a general store. In a climate of anti-immigrant bias, they changed the family’s last name to Hartford in an attempt to improve employment prospects.
Ralph Hartford, the couple’s 11th and last child, “always wanted to change his name back to Alfieri. But not having any children, the family name wouldn’t carry on beyond him anyway,” said Gary Hartford. “His heritage was Alfieri. … But everybody knew him as Hartford” or by his various nicknames — Guff, Guffy, Gramps (even when he was in high school) and later Uncle Junior.
He fit easily into the Italian sauce of 1930s Braddock. He joined the kids who goofed around on Center Street, playing release and a rough game called huckety buck in which friends would pile on each other’s backs, according to Neal Sacramento, his pal since boyhood.
“Running around all day, he was in pretty good shape,” said Mr. Sacramento — so much so that he played on the ends of the offensive and defensive lines on Braddock High School’s football team, despite being modest in size.
Ralph Hartford lost five siblings early on in a flu epidemic, and the other five passed away over time. After half of the family home burned down, he alone stayed with his father, sleeping in a recliner in the kitchenwith the pet canaries, whileDad took the bedroom.
He inherited his father’s love for the natural life, eating figs and apples from backyard trees, tending beehives and hunting in Venango County. During deer seasons, the family would spend a week in a converted former school bus in Kennerdell. Later they upgraded to a cottage there.
Mr. Hartford had girlfriends but never married. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh and made a career with the state’s insurance regulatory department, from which he retired.
He always found time to be there when the red, white and green flew alongside the stars and stripes. He’d ride in the Columbus Day parade but seemed more at home giving donuts to the volunteers at Kennywood’s Italian Day, at which hundreds of people with special needs got rock-star treatment.
He was motivated by Italian-American pride, of course, but also saw the organizations as means of keeping his family and friends close.
“He was very proud of his heritage,” said Mr. Costa, but never in a boastful way. He stayed behind the scenes and “made sure that everything was done right and everybody had a good time.”
Although he had a few addresses over time, they were all on Corey Avenue. Gary Hartford suggested a move to Forest Hills, or Kennerdell, but his uncle just shrugged off such ideas.
“I said, ‘Are you worried about having your obituary say lifelong resident of Braddock?’ ” Gary Hartford recounted. “He said, ‘It’s paid for, and it’s fine for me.’ ”
In recent years, a variety of health problems compelled him to resign from the leadership of the ISDA. After spending a few June weeks in Kennerdell, he died from complications of a stroke.
He had a living will that ruled out a long stay on life support. “He was thinking about us when he did that,” said Gary Hartford. “He didn’t want us to see him like that and have to take care of him.”
Friends will be welcomed at Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home & Crematory in Turtle Creek from 2-8 p.m. Thursday and Friday. A burial Mass is scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. at Good Shepherd Church in Braddock, followed by burial in Braddock Catholic Cemetery.