William Oliver Belmondo

Born at Renton, Washington, on 28 March 1925, to John and Rose Belmondo, and lived there all his life; his brothers Mario and Johnny and his sister Erma died before him. He graduated from Renton High School in 1943 and served in the Navy in the Second World War, a radarman on the USS White Plains in the Pacific and a plank owner of the USS Midway. After the war he went to Washington State College, where he was a Phi Kappa Tau (obituary).

There he met Janet Ellingwood in her last year. Her father remembered “a big good looking Italian boy,” and they were married “right after school closed” on 22 June 1952, the last of the four daughters’ weddings. “What a fine family they have, and how they enjoy their good times together, particularly on their mountain hikes after mushrooms. And how we have all come to like Bill for his sound capability and excellent judgment, his ability to get along with people and his progress in his work” (Cudge’s memoir, scan 163). They were married sixty-three years.

He spent thirty-five years in the Renton School District, first as a teacher and coach, then in a number of administrative posts at the district office, and was a long-time member of the Renton Lions Club. He died on 18 July 2015, aged 90; his funeral was at St. Anthony’s Parish, Renton, and he was buried with military honours at the Tahoma National Cemetery. His obituary names his four children, Janet, Jeff, Craig and Brad, ten grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Open questions

• Where he died.
• His parents’ full names and his mother’s maiden name.