Obituary: G. Edmond Mariani / Founder of masonry restoration business

Nov. 28, 1915 - June 15, 2012

June 17, 2012 12:09 am

By Len Barcousky/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

G. Edmond Mariani would tell his daughters he was down to his last 35 cents when he and their mother started the masonry restoration business that still bears the family name.

"He said he would never allow that to happen -- to be that poor again," daughter Charlotte M. Amatangelo, of Scott, recalled.

Mr. Mariani, the co-founder of Mariani & Richards, died Friday at his home in Scott. He was 96.

He was the son of the late Giusto E. and Stella Gambogi Mariani. Born in Pittsburgh's Friendship neighborhood, he grew up in East Liberty.

Mr. Mariani was a graduate of Peabody High School and Duquesne University. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, entering as a private and rising to the rank of major. As part of his service, he was sent to study statistics at Harvard before being assigned to military bases in Florida.

He and his late wife, Josephine, started Mariani & Richards in 1950 with limited funds and limited knowledge of the masonry repair and waterproofing business, according to their daughter.

"He always said they got on a streetcar and rode down to the Carnegie Library to research French drains," Mrs. Amatangelo said, referring to the trenches that carry water away from structures.

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Obituary: G. Edmond Mariani / Founder of masonry restoration business