Jack L. DeCarlo, wholesale produce distributor

DeCarlo

Jack L. DeCarlo, 85, of Williamsville, president of Louis J. DeCarlo and Son Inc., a wholesale produce distributor for more than 90 years, died Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007, in Beechwood Nursing Home.

Started by his father, Louis J. DeCarlo, in the early 1900s, the firm was the first to bring fruit by truck and train from California and Florida during the offseason into Western New York.

Mr. DeCarlo graduated from St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute in 1940 and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Buffalo in 1948. His pre-med studies were interrupted by his service in the 91st Infantry during World War II in 1942. He served two of his three years overseas in the Ascension Island.

At the end of the war, Mr. De- Carlo returned to Buffalo where he started a family and joined his father's business, which he greatly expanded.

Louis J. DeCarlo and Son continually branched out by supplying chain stores as well as independent markets throughout New York and Pennsylvania with local, imported and domestic products.

Mr. DeCarlo served tenures as president of the Buffalo Produce Exchange, National Apple Association, and the United Fruit and Vegetable Association. He was a board director of the Bison Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, as well as a board director of the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal for more than 50 years.

Mr. DeCarlo was a fourth-degree member of the Knights of Columbus, and Cordova Caravan 26, Order of Alhambra.

An avid golfer, he was a member of Transit Valley Country Club for more than 45 years.

Mr. DeCarlo is survived by his wife of 61 years, the former Rosalie Savarino; two sons, Louis and Jack; a daughter, Francie Lippman; two sisters, Rosemary Fiorella and Betty Mihliore; and nine grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial was offered Monday, Sept. 17 in St. Gregory the Great Church.