Samuel Anthony Calisti Sr.

Samuel Anthony Calisti Sr was born on March 9, 1953, in Detroit, Michigan, to parents Joseph and Dorothy Calisti. He had one older brother, Joseph Philip Calisti (“Butch”), who predeceased Sam in death. Sam had two children with his first wife, Darlene Corso-Calisti; they are Julie Marie Calisti-Carey (50) and Samuel Anthony Calisti, Jr. (48). Julie has given Sam three grandchildren: Nicole Marie Weaver (31), Destiney Marie Lillard (26), Vincent Don Cochran (24). There are also two great-grand’s from Julie’s daughters Nicole and Destiney; they are Meredith Marie Weaver (3) and Ayana Rose Kayley (3), respectively. Sam Jr. has not married and currently lives in Meridian, Idaho. He is a decades-long employee of Lowes. Julie lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with her husband Rudy Carey; they have a Recovery Ministry and Rudy is soon to be ordained. Sam Sr. and Darlene divorced in 1979. A couple years later, Sam married Mary Decker-Barrett of San Pedro, California.

Sam’s parents moved the family from Detroit to Anaheim, California, in 1962. Sam attended Savannah High School. Sam’s dad and brother worked for years at George D Widman Sheetmetal Company in Gardena, California, and when the time came for Sam to start working, he joined them. Sam worked for Widman’s for 20 years, the last 10 years being their Plant Manager. Sam met his second wife who worked across the street from Widman’s at a small aerospace company. When Sam and second-wife Mary moved to Anchorage, Alaska, in 1990, Sam worked at the University of Alaska Anchorage as Student Housing’s Maintenance Coordinator for 23 years!

Sam and Mary married on May 1, 1981, in Fairbanks, Alaska, where Mary’s father, Rev. Harold Decker performed the service and Mary’s mother, Ruth Decker, walked her down the aisle (which was very progressive for 1981!).

Sam’s dream had always been to live in Alaska. He tried to persuade his parents to let him go when he was 16 because he wanted to make tons of money working on the pipeline like so many others at that time. But they said NO! It was a good thing because his friends that went without him died in an Anchorage hotel fire. Later, of course, his first wife sure didn’t want to live in Alaska, especially with two small children. Awhile after Darlene and Sam divorced, he met future wife Mary whose parents had just moved to Fairbanks to be pastors at Fairbanks First Assembly of God — and he thought Mary would be his ticket to his beloved Alaska! Alas, Mary said NO too because Sam’s children were so young (three and five when they started dating). But at the end of the 1980s, Mary got a call that her dad probably had only a couple of years left, so the couple re-assessed and prayed, and made the leap moving to Anchorage in 1990.

Sam retired in 2015, and Mary retired in 2018. They moved to their “retirement home” in Sun City, Arizona, in 2021. They were able to buy Mary’s dream home (ranch style, corner lot) which she desperately wanted — after living in a three-story condo with people on both sides of them and no yard to speak of — for 31 years in Anchorage. They had so many plans for their retirement years, yet things don’t always go as planned.

Very unexpectedly, Sam was diagnosed with Stage 4B Esophageal Cancer in June 2024. EC is an insidious cancer in that once symptoms appear, it is in the advanced stages 3 or 4. Sam went through radiation and chemo treatments, and he and Mary were hopeful. Unfortunately, he ended up in the hospital the first week of October with a GI Bleed and Pulmonary Embolism that he just didn’t bounce back from. Sam and Mary once again reassessed life and what their lives might look like even if Sam got a couple more years “in remission.” It was then they decided to stop treatment. Everything moved so very quickly after that, and Sam was entered into Hospice Comfort Care on a Tuesday and he died peacefully at home that Friday (October 25, 2024) with his beloved children and wife around him.

Sam Calisti was a wonderful, hardworking, really really good man! Indeed, he was almost a saint his last few years, lovingly working in the church’s kitchen and food pantry even outside in the blazing Arizona heat. He loved and cherished his children more than life! He loved his wife passionately and always worked to make sure that she was going to be all right if/when anything happened to him.

Sam Calisti….son, father, husband, child of God….you are so missed! You are so loved! We are heartbroken that you left us so soon! You were only 71! But we know that we will see you again – and soon hopefully!