This obituary is a part of a collection about individuals who have died within the coronavirus pandemic. Examine others right here.When Domenic Par
This obituary is a part of a collection about individuals who have died within the coronavirus pandemic. Examine others right here.
When Domenic Parisi was 12 and had already spent six years apprenticed to a blacksmith in southern Sicily, he and his household had been getting ready to hitch his father, who had just lately immigrated to Hackensack, N.J. As soon as there, Domenic was anticipated to assist help his seven siblings.
Then got here some unsettling information. His father, in his first letter dwelling from America, lamented that his son’s coaching as a farrier was for naught.
“There are not any horses in Hackensack,” he wrote. “Inform Domenic to grow to be a barber.”
“So for subsequent two years I discovered be a barber,” Mr. Parisi informed Northwest Bergen Life-style journal final yr.
He discovered work in america instantly, and ultimately, in 1970, he and Pietro Maugeri opened Domenic & Pietro’s Barber Studio on Maple Avenue in Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J. The store emerged as a neighborhood establishment and remodeled Mr. Parisi into a neighborhood celeb when he grew to become Richard M. Nixon’s barber, reducing the previous president’s hair twice a month for the final 9 years of his life.
Mr. Parisi died on Oct. 2 at a Hackensack hospital. He was 76. His son Joseph mentioned the trigger was problems of the coronavirus.
Nixon grew to become a gradual buyer round 1985, after he moved from California to New Jersey — first to Saddle River after which to Park Ridge.
Mr. Parisi slept fitfully the night time earlier than the previous president’s first appointment. At 7:30 a.m., as a substitute of a motorcade, a modest gold-colored sedan pulled up. The only real passenger was handed a $10 invoice by the driving force and obtained out of the automotive to have his hair minimize.
In subsequent visits, Nixon would cheerfully signal autographs for different clients and passers-by. He and Mr. Parisi palavered about sports activities and household, however by no means about politics,
“At any time when I knew he was coming in, I might at all times ensure that I learn the paper to memorize what occurred in final night time’s Giants or Yankees recreation,” Mr. Parisi mentioned.
“He was like all people else,” Mr. Parisi informed The Report of Bergen County, N.J., in 1995. “In fact, I knew him at a unique time, when he was extra relaxed.”
Domenic Parisi was born on Oct. 27, 1943, in Santa Croce Camerina, a small city close to Ragusa, to Joseph and Rosaria (Caratello) Parisi.
He arrived in america within the mid-1950s and, already educated to chop hair, was employed by a neighborhood barber though he was simply 14. (“He mentioned the inspector solely comes within the mornings,” he recalled, “so I may begin instantly working after faculty.”)
He began full time at 16. When he was 20 he married Linda Patrucco. Alongside along with his son Joseph, she survives him, as do two different youngsters, Paul Parisi and Jennifer Poole; 4 grandchildren; and three siblings, Joseph, Tina and Maryann. One other daughter, Rosa Parisi, died in 2000.
Mr. Parisi was working in one other barber store when Mr. Maugeri stopped by to use for a job. They grew to become quick associates and opened Domenic & Pietro’s. Mr. Maugeri died in 2004.
“I’ve been right here virtually 50 years and by no means needed to work a day in my life as a result of I like my job,” Mr. Parisi mentioned final yr. He labored till he grew to become ailing.
“Individuals would ask him when he was going to retire,” mentioned his son Joseph, who labored alongside his father within the barber store since 1986. “He would say, ‘Perhaps I’ll wait till Joseph retires after which we are able to retire collectively.’”
Joseph Parisi mentioned this week that he nonetheless hopes to work there for one more 10 years or so — although now, for the primary time, he appears like he’s on his personal.