ADIO AMICO DELLA COSTA - SALVATORE (SAL) LOCATELLI

Locatelli remembered as self-made lumberman

By: TOM RAGAN SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

Salvatore Locatelli, an Italian immigrant who came to Santa Cruz with nothing but the clothes on his back but worked long enough and hard enough to own his own lumber business, died July 2 at Stanford University Hospital.

He was 76 and had suffered from a lengthy illness.

Locatelli was a U.S. citizen from his father, who was born in Boulder Creek. He grew up with his mother in Italy, and his father would return to visit every couple of years.

"He came from Italy the year I was born, in 1949," said his wife, Althea Locatelli, 57, of Santa Cruz. "We used to joke to people and say it was an arranged marriage because I'm Italian and my parents came from Italy, too"

In fact, the marriage was arranged, kind of — by Locatelli's brother, Mario, who met Althea while he was a patient at Kaiser Hospital in Santa Clara. Althea was a nurse at the time and had helped Mario while he was suffering from melanoma — which claimed his life a few years later.

"He wanted to do me a favor, and his brother was single and he really wanted me to meet him," said Althea. "So Sal delivered two cords of firewood to me in October 1985"

And the rest was history. The two hit it off and had been together ever since, she said.

Locatelli came from Berbenno, Bergamo in the northern part of Italy, about an hour from the Alps. His grandfather helped pay for his trip to the United States, where he eventually landed in Ellis Island like hundreds of thousands of immigrants before him.

From there he traveled to San Francisco, then on to Santa Cruz, where he eventually got a job working for the city's Sanitation Department in the day, then cutting lumber in the evenings.

"He'd work early in the morning, then go into the woods in the evening," said Althea. "Then he'd come home, sharpen the chains for the next day, eat dinner, then go to bed"

In the early 1960s, Locatelli founded his own business, Sal Locatelli Firewood, cutting and selling firewood. Family members joined the business in stages: a cousin first, then one brother, another brother and a son. Locatelli retired in 1985 and passed the business to his son Sal J. The company is now owned by one of Locatelli's nephews.

Locatelli was an avid hunter and loved to fish. He also enjoyed making wine and gardening.

Contact Tom Ragan at mailto:tragan@santacruzsentinel.com

Salvatore Locatelli
BORN: Nov. 19, 1930.
DIED: July 2, 2007.
HOME: Santa Cruz.
OCCUPATION: Owned lumber business.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Member of the Marconi Club.
SURVIVORS: Wife, Althea Locatelli of Santa Cruz; sons Richard S. Locatelli, Daniel S. Locatelli and Sal J. Locatelli, all of Santa Cruz; stepson Jeremy Gibson of Tacoma, Wash.; stepdaughter Cheryce Chartier of Elkhurst; brothers John Locatelli and Joe Locatelli, both of Santa Cruz; sister Angie Inman of Bakersfield; eight grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

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