Anthony Delani

Anthony Giacalone DeLani was born on October 22, 1925 in the beautiful city of Monterey in central coastal California, to parents Nicolo Giacalone and Epifania Asaro Giacalone, Sicilian immigrants who came to America in 1919 and 1920 by way of Ellis Island from Mazara del Vallo in Trapani Province on the western coast of Sicily. He spent the first eighteen years of his life, along with his siblings Peter, Jenny, Salvatore, and Vera, on Monroe Street in the Italian neighborhood of Monterey, surrounded by family and friends in the fishing industry. He went home to be with the Lord and reunited in heaven with his late wife of 60 years, Gloria Romero DeLani, on June 13, 2019. Tony and Gloria were long-time members of Skyline Wesleyan Church in Rancho San Diego.

He was an early employee of the former Western Union Telegraph Company, first as a bicycle messenger delivering telegrams all over Monterey and Cannery Row and later as a teletype operator. He received his Navy boot camp training at the San Diego Naval Training Station in 1943, served 30 months of sea duty as an RM2/C aboard the USS Lamson and Flusser during World War II, and received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy on November 30, 1946, at Treasure Island, San Francisco. He was awarded service ribbons for the Asiatic-Pacific, Philippine Liberation, American Theatre, and Victory Medal.

He attended primary and secondary school in Monterey, received his Associates degree from Southwestern Community College, and completed three semesters at BIOLA (the Bible Institute of Los Angeles). His employment as a civil engineering draftsman ended upon his retirement in 1987 after seven years at the City of El Cajon Engineering Department plus eight years with the firm of BDS/Bement-Dainwood-Sturgeon.

He is survived by his younger sister Vera (Lowell) Morse of Oregon and by his three daughters: Romaine (Don) Dudley, Marlene Moore, and Stephanie (Sergio) Noriega; eight grandsons and one granddaughter; three great-granddaughters; and one more great on the way. Private graveside services will be conducted. We celebrate the life of Anthony (Tony) Giacalone DeLani, a member of The Greatest Generation, and our dad.