ALTAMONT — For her father, Joseph R. Pugliano, “It was always about being Italian and feeding people,” said Susan Pugliano Baker.

Born on May 5, 1930 and raised in Wellsville, Ohio, Mr. Pugliano spent more than 30 years working in Altamont as a meat cutter at his own business, the Village Butcher Shop. He died on Friday, March 4, at his home in Rotterdam. He was 85.

His parents, Giovanni and Maria Rosa (née Petrollo) Pugliano, were farmers who had eight children.

He learned the meat business from his wife, Celestina’s, father.

The couple met through a tomato machine, his daughter recalled.  

Mrs. Pugliano explained that their parents — hers and her in-laws’ — had both come to the United States, the Puglianos to Ohio, where there were “steel mills and lots of work,” and her parents to Schenectady, where his sister lived and where General Electric and the American Locomotive Company were located.

Her husband’s godfather, who was also Mr. Pugliano’s mother’s first cousin, was going back to Italy after his retirement and stopped in Schenectady to say goodbye to some friends from the old country, including Mrs. Pugliano’s parents. It was September, and just as people would at that time in Italy, her mother was grinding tomatoes, but she was doing it with a machine that separated the pulp from the seeds for her.

The relative who knew both families asked her parents if they would send a machine to Joseph Pugliano’s mother. He said, “She has eight children and does it all by hand.” He told them he would pay, and wrote down the name and address. When Celestina’s mother saw the name, she started to cry. The two young women had worked together on a farm, picking olives and other produce, in Italy.

When her family sent the tomato machine, they also put in a group photograph. It turned out his family had a daughter about her age, who wrote them a letter. The two young women began to correspond back and forth.

“Our mothers didn’t read or write, you know? So she wrote for her mom, and I wrote for mine.,” said Mrs. Pugiano.

At one point, a letter came from Ohio saying that her brother had been drafted into the army, was stationed on Okinawa, and was lonesome, and asked if Celestina would write to him.

She replied, “No, I won’t write, but if he writes I’ll answer.” And he did. “That’s how we met.”

He was on Okinawa almost three years.

When he came back, Mrs. Pugliano recalled, he told his parents he would like to “go meet this girl.” His mother was thrilled, because she knew the young woman’s parents. The three of them came east together to visit, and his parents had a wonderful time meeting old friends, while Joseph and Celestina began to date.

It was a long-distance relationship, Mrs. Pugliano recalled. “He used to get out of work at the railroad on Friday and jump in the car and drive 14 hours to get here, up Route 20. There was no Thruway then. He came here pretty much every other week.” She went to Ohio four or five times too.

Within a year they were married. “I didn’t like Ohio. It was a very small town, and I didn’t want to be away from my family. I told him, ‘If you want me, you have to come here.’ And he did. He was here 62 years.”

The two were married in June of 1954 and would have celebrated their 62nd anniversary this summer.

Her father, who was a meat cutter, broke Mr. Pugliano into the business. Mr. Pugliano was a salesman at first, before deciding that he would like to carry on the trade, his wife said. He ran a store on Curry Road in Schenectady for 10 years before moving to Altamont. His daughter, Susan Baker, was co-owner of the store.

“He loved the work. He was a good meat cutter,” Mrs. Pugliano said.

He was a workaholic, retiring only of necessity when the shop was evicted from the property by the owners, Mrs. Pugliano said. Even then, he kept a few customers and would pick up and deliver meat for them. “He’d be home by noon. He didn’t know how to be home. He worked up to the day before he died,” she said.

Regular customer and family friend Father Jeffrey L’Arche said that Joe Pugliano “enjoyed conversation in a folksy way.”  The atmosphere in his store was more like that of a barbershop, where people gathered to spend time talking, “rather than a strict business.” He was interested in his community and especially the village of Altamont, said L’Arche.

Mr. Pugliano always stressed education, his daughter said. He had not been able to complete his own, because his parents, who were farmers, needed his help. Mrs. Pugliano said that she thought he left school in the 11th grade. He joined the railroad at 15, she said, lying and telling them he was 16 to get the job. He worked there until their marriage, except for the years he spent in the army during the Korean War, from 1951 through his discharge in 1953, after earning the rank of corporal. “He was always helping his parents,” his wife said.

Mr. Pugliano loved the Yankees and the New England Patriots. He would sit in his chair and “shout and yell” throughout their games. He also loved watching golf, his wife said.

“He was always helping others in need,” his daughter said. “If someone came into the store and didn’t have money to pay, he would make sure that they walked out of there with something in his stomach.”

The couple loved dogs and “always had mutts,” Mrs. Pugliano said. “Now we’ve got a Pomeranian who is missing him terribly. He goes over and looks at his chair and can’t figure out where Poppy is, because his car is outside.  When I let him out, he goes over and sits beside the car.”  

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Joseph R. Pugliano is survived by his loving wife of nearly 62 years, Celestina (née Micelli) Pugliano.

The couple had three children. The oldest, Joseph, died in 1986 at age 29, of cancer, and after that, the Puglianos began to donate regularly to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, for cancer research.

Mr. Pugliano is survived by two children, Michael Pugliano and his wife, Sandra, of Cohoes, and Susan Pugliano Baker of Rotterdam.

His parents and all but one of his brothers and sisters died before him.

Mr. Pugliano is also survived by his grandchildren, Serena Roginsky and her husband, Nathan, of Tennessee, Christina Baker of Rotterdam, Sarah Phillips of Rotterdam, and Nicholas Toomey of Tennessee, as well as by his great-grandson, Anthony Bush of Rotterdam.

Survivors also include his sister, Angelina Frank and her husband, Rudy, of Florida, and his sisters-in-law, Toni Volpicelli of Rotterdam and Helen Pugliano of Wellsville, Ohio.

He also leaves behind several nieces, nephews, and cousins across the country.

The family extends many thanks to Rotterdam Emergency Services and the staff in the emergency department of Ellis Hospital for their help Friday evening.

Funeral services were on Wednesday and were handled by the DeMarco-Stone Funeral Home in Rotterdam and included a Mass of Christian Burial at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Schenectady. Burial was at Saints Cyril and Method Cemetery in Rotterdam.

— Elizabeth Floyd Mair