KNOX — Frank A. Pemantel was a man who lived his life to the fullest, doing what he enjoyed, fixing various items and spending the last of his years in the Hilltowns. He died on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. He was 76.

“You either loved him to death of you couldn’t stand the sight of him,” said his wife, Dianne E. Pemantel. She noted that most people did love him, as he was willing do anything for anyone.

“He literally could do anything,” she said, explaining that he could fix just about anything.

Mr. Pemantel was born to the late Frank and Isabel Pemantel and was raised in Jamestown, Rhode Island. He enjoyed fixing items even as a child, both for himself and his friends. He attended only grammar school, and went to work for his father in the junking business afterwards, but his wife noted he was still intelligent.

“He could add numbers up like nobody else’s business,” she said. And he was able to fix cars with ease, identifying the problem just by someone describing the sound the engine was making, she said.

It was on the island of Jamestown that he met the woman who would become his wife. She was from East Providence, Rhode Island, but stayed at Jamestown with her family in the summer. The island was a close-knit community, and Mr. Pemantel drove up to her house one night where several other people were meeting.

“That’s when I met Frank,” she said. “And we hit it off right away, and we were married in six months.

The couple got married on Jan. 15, 1966. During their 51 years of marriage, Mrs. Pemantel said, her husband never forgot an anniversary, birthday, or holiday, and always brought something home.

“He brought me things even if it wasn’t a holiday,” she said.

It was during their first year of marriage that Mrs. Pemantel learned of her husband’s talent. Her father was unable to fix items, and so, when her husband came home one day, she told him they would need to get a new lamp because their old one was not working. Mr. Pemantel shortly had it working again.

“No matter what it was or what it did, Frank could fix it,” said his wife.

Mr. Pemantel was a fairly strict but loving father to his two children, said his wife, though he left the discipline to her.

“As the kids got older, he enjoyed them more,” she said.

He also had three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

“He was just thrilled to death with them,” said Mrs. Pemantel.

Mr. Pemantel also kept pets throughout his life, even taking in strays his children brought home. His last two pets were a Pomeranian, Mikey, “who practically lived on top of Frank,” said his wife, and cat, Wilma, “who was the same way.”

When Mr. Pemantel was 16 or 17, he started working for the three different gas stations on the island. His father kept another business, a second-hand shop that the young couple would occasionally bring furniture to. Mr. Pemantel’s father let the two run their own section of the store, and eventually they bought the entire shop from his father.

Mr. and Mrs. Pemantel owned and operated North End Antiques for over 20 years, and traveled to antique shows throughout Rhode Island, as well as to the well-known Brimfield Antique Show in Massachusetts. They traveled in a camper, and Mrs. Pemantel said her husband would often return after only a few hours with “an armful or a wagon-load” of antiques.

While attending some of these antiques shows, the couple met people from the Hilltowns and were invited to visit.

“And Frank fell in love with the place,” said Mrs. Pemantel.

After Mr. Pemantel’s parents died and he did not have to care for them, and after the couple had ended their antiques business, the two moved to an 11-acre property in Knox. They had spent 14 years there.

“It reminded him of Jamestown, Rhode Island, when we were first married,” explained his wife. She noted that, as an island, it originally was very isolated.

“We just fell in love with the place,” she said.

Mr. Pemantel enjoyed being outdoors and hunting and fishing, both in the Hilltowns and in Jamestown. He was one of the first members of the Jamestown Rod and Gun Club, and also was a member Newport, Rhode Island, Elks Lodge for many years.

He savored his time at the antiques store, as well as at his home in Hilltowns, said Mrs. Pemantel.

“He loved the people that are around him … ,” she explained. “What he did do, he chose; his was a full life for him.”

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Mr. Pemantel is survived by his wife, Dianne E. Pemantel; his children, Michele Matheson and her husband, Dale Matheson; Michael Pemantel and his wife, Maritza Pemantel; his grandchildren, Amanda, Michael and Matthew; and his great-grandchildren, Selena and Gabriel.

Funeral services will be private. To leave a message of condolence for the family online visit, www.newcomeralbany.com.

— H. Rose Schneider