Larry Mungiole, 62, sales manager

Larry Mungiole, 62, of Northeast Philadelphia, Eastern regional sales manager for the Midland Manufacturing Co. and a youth sports coach in the Northeast for more than a decade, died Monday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after a two-year battle with cancer of the esophagus.

Mr. Mungiole worked for 10 years for Midland, a Chicago manufacturer of valves and measuring devices for barges and railroad tank cars.

Coaching, however, was his true passion, his son Matthew said. "He enjoyed coaching more than working," he said.

He said that when he was 4 and learning to hit a baseball, his father was his T-ball manager. His father kept coaching him, and his peers, for the next 13 years.

In addition to baseball, Mr. Mungiole coached basketball and soccer and had something akin to a compulsion for volunteering, said his wife of 38 years, the former Susan Kershaw.

"He couldn't go to the Cub Scouts without becoming president," she said. "I used to tell him, 'Keep your hand down!' "

His Torresdale Boys Club soccer team won a city championship in the 1980s.

Matthew Mungiole said that when it came to playing for his father, bloodlines didn't come with privilege.

"He treated me like a regular player," he said. He added that his father was fair and diplomatic in dealing with the players and their parents.

"My dad made sure everyone got into the games," he said. "It was as much about fun and togetherness as winning."

Mr. Mungiole, who lived in the Northeast for 35 years, grew up in South Philadelphia and graduated from Bishop Neumann High School in 1963. He then went to work for Rohm & Haas in the accounting department, where he met his wife to be.

Mr. Mungiole eventually moved to the company's transportation department and became a self-taught transportation specialist, serving as president of the Traffic Club of Philadelphia in 1996.

At Rohm & Haas he came into contact with salesmen from other companies, and that inspired him to get into sales, his wife said.

He moved on to Midland 10 years ago, and at the time of his death he was its sales representative for the entire East Coast.

Along with coaching, Mr. Mungiole had another passion: horse-racing. He once competed in the National Handicapping Tournament in Las Vegas. He also liked to fish, go clamming, and feed ducks with his grandchildren.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Mungiole is survived by another son, Christofer; a daughter, Serena Ciallella; his mother, Doris; a brother, Arthur, and two grandchildren.

A viewing will be held from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. today at the Vincent Gangemi Funeral Home, Broad and Wolf Streets in South Philadelphia. A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. at St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi Catholic Church, Seventh and Montrose Streets, in the Bella Vista section of South Philadelphia. Burial will be in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon.