Hubert 'Bud' DiGiacomo, Water Dept. foreman
Funeral services will be held Wednesday, June 8, for Hubert Joseph "Bud" DiGiacomo, 90, a retired Navy Reserve officer and Philadelphia Water Department foreman, who died Saturday, May 28.
Funeral services will be held Wednesday, June 8, for Hubert Joseph "Bud" DiGiacomo, 90, a retired Navy Reserve officer and Philadelphia Water Department foreman, who died Saturday, May 28.
Mr. DiGiacomo, of Rhawnhurst, died of complications of Alzheimer's disease at St. John Neumann Nursing Home on Roosevelt Boulevard.
Born and reared in Kensington, Mr. DiGiacomo attended Ascension of Our Lord grade school and Northeast Catholic High School for Boys. He left high school in September 1943 to join the Navy and fight in World War II.
After training at boot camp in Sampson, N.Y., he was deployed to New Orleans in 1944 to serve as a motor machinist's mate aboard the LCT-742 (a landing craft for tanks) in the Asiatic and Pacific theaters. The LCT-742 was in pieces when it was loaded aboard the LST-618, a tank landing ship, which steamed out of New Orleans. The mechanics had to put it together. As they did so, the LST-618 made ports of call in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Panama.
Once through the Panama Canal, the LST-618 visited Holy Ghost and Manus Islands. After the LCT-742 was assembled, it made stops at Hollandia, in New Guinea, and Leyte and Manila, in the Philippines, as well as Okinawa.
In April 1946, Mr. DiGiacomo was honorably discharged with the rank of motor machinist mate second class. He returned to high school and received his diploma in 1947.
That same year, Mr. DiGiacomo joined the Navy Reserve. For years afterward, he annually spent two weeks of active duty in Key West, Fla., Norfolk, Va., or New London, Conn.
He served as a recruiter with Submarine Division 4-37 and retired from the Orion, a submarine tender, with a ceremony aboard the USS Olympia in 1983, although he actually left the reserve with the rank of senior chief petty officer two years later.
On May 23, 1950, Mr. DiGiacomo dated Bette Bissey for the first time. They were married exactly three years later. Their daughter was born in 1963.
From 1951 until his retirement in 1982, Mr. DiGiacomo worked for the Water Department. He started out as an auto mechanic and rose to shop foreman.
His retirement was short-lived. "It was two weeks," said his daughter, Kristine, known as "Tina."
Mr. DiGiacomo then worked at A.D. Surplus Sales, a scrap metal firm in Port Richmond owned by his father. When his father died in 1986, the company closed. Mr. DiGiacomo then helped out in the parts department of Kutner Buick in Northeast Philadelphia and Colonial Nissan in Feasterville-Trevose. He stopped working after the blizzard of January 1996, his daughter said.
"It was just too much for him," his daughter said.
Mr. DiGiacomo enjoyed bowling and volunteering with various Catholic organizations. He served on the Resurrection Home and School Association, was vice president of Resurrection Recs senior group, and was a member of Northeast Catholic's board of governors.
His wife and daughter are his only survivors.
A viewing will be held from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 8, at Visconto Funeral Home, 2031 Vista St. A Funeral Mass will follow at 10:30 a.m. at Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord, 2000 Shelmire Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19152. Burial will be at 1 p.m. in Washington Crossing National Cemetery.
Donations may be made to the church's Sanctuary Fund at the address above.
610-313-8102