July 1, 2010: LAKEHURST, NJ – Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakehurst recently held a service at the Engineering Complex Quadrangle dedicating the Perry DiGiovanniantonio Conference Room 103 in Building 596. The dedication honors DiGiovanniantonio who died in December at age 88. Over 60 employees and former employees attended.

DiGiovanniantonio, whose career began as an Apprentice Shipfitter at $.50 and hour at the Philadelphia Ship Yard, retired in August 2009 after serving 68 years with the Navy including his last 35 years at Lakehurst.

Declining relocation allowance, he took two buses from his home in Philadelphia across town to get to a carpool pick-up point for the drive to Lakehurst and back. Satisfied with family, busy weekends, co-workers’ relationships and weekend trips, he rarely took vacations, giving away most of his annual leave.

Kathleen P. Donnelly, Senior Executive Service, Director of Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) and Support Equipment (SE) shared that she met him on her first day at Lakehurst 25 years ago. After meeting, he offered to take the first-day GS-5 employee to lunch. After checking with her new coworkers, she accepted and became one of many “Perry Girls.”
From what he shared about the challenging, important work done here and the people who do it, Donnelly said she decided her initial goal of “Do a job for three years and split government,” needed to become, “Start today for a potential Navy career.”

“He has impacted lots of people in lots of ways,” said Donnelly. “He lived his creed to honor God, be loyal to country and true to family.”

“His lunches became social events,” according to Lorie Nace. “He used vacation time for lunch and donations to his Lakehurst family.” On days at the shore, he surprised kids on the beach with ice cream cones and shared their reactions with friends at work on Mondays.

“He was like a dad or granddad to many employees,” said his last supervisor, Lauri Silveri.

Asked by Rear Admiral Jeffrey Cook, NAVAIR Vice Commander, at the base’s 2001 air show, why he kept working, Digiovanniantonio told him, “The work is meaningful, the people are great, it keeps me healthy, and above all, I get to lunch with the ladies every day!”

Until his death, DiGiovanniantonio, owned the Navy Lakehurst Plank presented to the longest serving employee. Plank ownership follows a long held Naval tradition of recognizing original crew of Navy sailing ships with a piece of wood from the deck of the ship they served aboard as original crew members. They leave with “free, clear open and unencumbered title to a plank of that ship.”

Though DiGiovanniantonio held several patents for aircraft barricades and one for the space shuttle Orbiter barricade), conversations following the ceremony demonstrated attendees were clearly friends attending to honor a friend, one they reminisced was always kind, genuinely interested in people, one who had remembered the details of their lives.