Carmelo 'Joe' Lamacchia

          Carmelo Joseph Lamacchia, or Joe as most know him, was born May 8th, 1930 in Watertown MA. He was the oldest of three children born to Anthony (Tony) and Laura Lamacchia, with sisters Nancy and Helen. As a young boy, he was raised on a farm that his grandfather supervised in the West end of Watertown. He enjoyed working on the farm, playing baseball and football at the local parks with his friends.  He had many childhood memories being in school and doing AIRADE drills during WWII, and picking bushels of grapes before school with his Mom.     He graduated from Watertown High School in 1948 and went on to pursue his degree in accounting at Northeastern University where he took a trolley car to school every day while working nights and weekends.

          In 1952, he married the love of his life, Aurora (Dora) D’Amore from Cambridge. After graduation, he was drafted into the US Army to serve at the end of the Korean War. Upon his return from Korea, he and Aurora lived upstairs from his parents on Quincy St Watertown where they had their first child, Betty Ann.  Joe continued working hard and saving money. After having their second child, Joseph, they bought their home on Madison Ave in Watertown, where they had their third child, Rosemary.  While raising his children he also successfully completed his Master’s Degree at Northeastern University. He was known to be a very active father, always involved in both school and sports activities. Joe worked at Raytheon as an accountant for 37 years until his retirement in 1993. He was known to co-workers as a very hardworking, disciplined man.

            The family always came first in his life, and he instilled this value in his children. Joe spent his retirement years with Dora caring for the many grandchildren for which they were blessed. Both he and Dora shared great pride in helping their son Joseph raise Anthony, their first grandchild. Joe attended every one of Anthony’s football games rain, shine or freezing cold weather. He also managed the bookkeeping for his son Joseph’s landscaping business and handled all the families’ taxes during winter tax season. His summers were spent enjoying his tomato gardens, grilling at the many backyard family cookouts and managing “Camp Nonnie and Poppie” for the grandchildren which included “coffee-dough”, visiting various playgrounds, and of course pool time. He continued with these activities until about 2006 when life began to slow down but he and Dora remained active. They remained in their home until January 2017 when due to declining health, they were moved to Neville Center in Cambridge Mass where they received wonderful care for the remainder of their lives. Joe was widely known in the entire family as being the smartest, most disciplined, and very much the patriarch of the family. Carmelo was the devoted grandfather to Anthony, Joseph, Madison & the late Heather Lamacchia, Victoria & Matthew Maguire, Jeffrey, Benjamin & Jonathan Tsocayianis and great grandfather of Ava, Mason, Charlie, Grant & Jack Lamacchia. Dear brother of Helen Lamacchia & the late Nancy Kennedy.

           Funeral from the Nardone Funeral Home, 373 Main St. Watertown on Thursday August 24th at 8 AM followed by a 9 AM funeral mass in St. Patrick’s Church, 212 Main St., Watertown. Burial with Military Honors will follow in Ridgelawn Cemtery. Visiting hours will be held on Wednesday August 23rd from 4 to 7 PM.

In lieu of flowers please make donations to the Neville Center, where Carmelo and Aurora were lovingly cared for to be used for activities and enjoyment:

Neville Center, c/o Kate Norfleet & Marianne Lewis, 640 Concord Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138

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