David Milton Mongillo

Southington- David Milton Mongillo passed away peacefully on May 25, 2024, in the Hartford Hospital. David was born in New Britain Connecticut on December 29, 1938, the only child of Milton Mongillo and Florence Tani Mongillo. David met his wife, Carol Skinner when he was sixteen years old. The pair dated throughout their college years; David attended Boston University and Carol, Central Connecticut State University. Summer of 1962 they married at Saint Maurice Church in New Britain with a large wedding reception at the Grantmoor Hotel. Eighteen days before David and Carol’s sixtieth wedding anniversary, in June 2022, Carol predeceased David at the age of 83. David returned to Southington from Boston University in 1959. Skin cancer canceled his plans to serve in the U.S. Navy, but the silver lining was that he spent the next six decades serving his family, friends, and community. Mongillo was a member of the Southington Volunteer Fire Department, Company 2, for over forty years. During his service with Engine Company 2, he served as captain and training officer. He worked for his family’s rigging and trucking business in Southington, before eventually running the company until its sale in 1992. David, Carol and their two year-old daughter Beth-Ann moved to a big blue house in Southington, with apple trees and a community of loving neighbors, in 1969. There they raised Beth-Ann and their younger daughter, Gail. As the years passed they also watched over three grandchildren, turned neighbors into life-long friends, and hosted many a fine dinner party.

In work and in life, David was happiest doing three things: talking to people, skiing and sailing. For over twenty years, he split his time between the ski patrol and the marketing departments at Killington Ski Resort in Vermont. David, Carol, and their two daughters, Beth-Ann and Gail skied all over the world, from their hometown mountain, Mount Southington, to the powdery mountains of Colorado, and the glacier capped peaks of Switzerland. David was an award winning freelance photojournalist and writer. His column, “Snow Views” ran in the Southington Citizen for decades. He traveled around the world covering professional and collegiate ski racing. The family spent their summers at a little cottage by the beach in Westbrook Connecticut. During those warm–ride your bike to the beach–days, David shared his passion for sailing and the sea. Through careful explanations of his idea for a sailing-themed Grey Poupon ad and tales of starboard-tacking a submarine, David passed on his passion. David was quick to laugh. No one in the world will match his storytelling skills. It could be the fiftieth time he told his famous tale of being stuck on a chairlift with legendary country singer, John Denver, and you would still laugh like it was the first time. David had a number of careers. One of his most favorite was in the shoe department at Filene’s department store. He loved the people, who by all accounts, never even knew he was trying to sell them shoes until they’d walked out of the store with a new pair of shoes on their feet. David was on the inaugural committee of Southington’s famous Apple Harvest Festival, which his family enjoyed year after year for decades. He was an ace bocce player and he helped build the bocce courts at Southington’s Sons of Italy Club. The list of David Mongillo’s careers and accomplishments is almost as long as his repertoire of hilarious–and slightly apocryphal– stories. Above all else, he was a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend. He leaves his daughters, Beth-Ann Robinson and husband Mark, Groton, CT; Gail Sanville, and husband Rich, Frisco, CO; brother-in-law Robert Skinner and wife Christel, Key Biscayne, FL; three grandsons, William Robinson, Deer Isle, ME, David Robinson and wife Megan, Jacksonville, NC, and James Robinson, Groton, CT; and his great-grandson, son of David and Megan, Waylon Robinson. Funeral services will be held on Thursday, October 31, 2024 beginning at 10:15 a.m. from the DellaVecchia Funeral Home, 211 N. Main St., Southington to St. Dominic Church, 1050 Flanders Rd., Southington for a Mass of Christian burial at 11 a.m. Burial will follow at St. Thomas Cemetery. Calling hours will be Wednesday October 30, 2024, from 4-7pm. For online condolences and directions please visit www.dellavecchiasouthington.com. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Connecticut Humane Society, 701 Russell Road, Newington, CT 06111; the Southington Fire Department Headquarters, 310 N. Main St., Southington, CT 06489 (in memory of David Mongillo, designate Engine Company 2 on the check), or the Oakcliff Sailing Program, 4 South Street, Oyster Bay, NY 11771 https://www.oakcliffsailing.org/