A Navy veteran of World War II is being mourned after his death en route to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day
A World War II Navy veteran was being mourned Thursday following his death while en route to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a trip friends said he’d talked excitedly about making.
Robert “Al” Persichitti of Fairport, New York fell ill during a stop in Germany last week and died in a hospital, his longtime priest and friend, the Rev. William Leone, said. Persichitti was 102.
“He’s been to most of the World War II remembrances down in Washington and Louisiana, and he wanted to get to the D-Day remembrance ceremony, too,“ Leone, pastor of the Church of Saint Jerome in East Rochester, where Persichitti attended Mass every week, said by phone.
