Reginald Gaggino of Royal Oak, Mich., died Aug. 23, 2024. He was 93.
Mr. Gaggino was born in Singapore Oct. 11, 1930, and grew up in Hong Kong during World War II before coming to the United States in 1950 to seek an engineering degree. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1956 as a Private First Class.
That same year, he met Mary Lou Batchler, who was in the Red Cross. They met when Mr. Gaggino broke his thumb and entered the Army hospital at Fort Carson, Colo., where she was a social worker.
He asked her to help him write letters to his family back home, which she did, and eventually Mr. Gaggino asked her out on a date, which technically was prohibited by Army regulations because she held a higher rank than his. He asked her to marry him on that first date, and she accepted. The couple were married in Grand Junction, Texas in 1956, then were transferred to Baumholder, Germany, where he played for the Army’s soccer team.
After Mr. Gaggino’s Army tour ended in 1958, the couple moved to Oberlin, Ohio, for his work, and it was there where their oldest daughter, Lia, was born. A job at Harrison Radiator then took him to Lockport, N.Y., where the couple’s second-oldest daughter, Alyssa, was born.
The family then moved to Tempe, Ariz., for his work at General Motors, where he was an engineer at the company’s desert proving grounds. There they had two more daughters, Marisa and Ayesha. They enjoyed camping, family trips to Mexico and Texas and entertaining friends.
In 1972 Mr.Gaggino was promoted and transferred to Detroit, where he worked in GM’s overseas division — his favorite job that allowed him to travel the world which was his dream. He brought the sailboat he built in Arizona and took the family on day trips in Lake Huron out of Port Sanilac. He remained in Detroit until his retirement in 1986, when he and Mary moved to Texas to live with her parents on the Batchler ranch.
They lived in Throckmorton for 33 years where they enjoyed the wide-open Texas sky. Mr. Gaggino loved to entertain friends and visitors hosting elaborate dinner parties featuring the Indonesian, Thai and Malaysian dishes he "whipped up".
The couple returned to Michigan to be with family in 2019 and spent time with his daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Mr. Gaggino died of complications following a hip fracture and was surrounded by his family listening to Norah Jones.
Marisa remembers dinner with him and Mary hours before his fall. After dinner they went out for ice cream, a visit with friends and a drive to look at beautiful homes. On the way home Marisa said, “Now, wasn’t that a fun night dad?” To which he replied, “Yay!”
Mr. Gaggino is survived by Mary, his wife of 68 years; Lia (Rodger Parzyck), Alyssa (Tom Tigani), Marisa (Rick Gage) and Ayesha; granddaughters Elyse Germain and Julia Parzyck; grandsons Alex Gaggino, Trevor Malen and Wyatt Gage; great-grandchildren Layla Malen and George Germain; and his sister Cheryl Algie and many nieces and nephews in Australia
Memorial donations may be made to:
Doctors Without Borders
The Michigan Braille and Talking Book Library. The Library of Michigan Foundation
The Oglala Lakota College
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