(Courtesy photograph)
Local Haverhill businessman Atillio Carbone died peacefully on June 29. Made in Italy and born in Haverhill in 1927, Atillio (Till) was the youngest of four children. Growing up during the Depression, he picked up his father’s business and his mother’s cooking savvy and accumulated lifelong friends and skills through schoolmates and Boy Scouts. Educated in Haverhill, Till attended Greenleaf and Peabody Schools before graduating from Haverhill Trade School in 1945.
A United States Navy veteran, Carbone was active in the Haverhill business community, selling prepackaged snacks with his brother out of a food truck before becoming part-owner and manager of the family business, Skateland, which opened in 1950. He later partnered with his brother Aldo to open Bradford Depot Laundromat in 1963, across from the skating rink, expanding the business years later by purchasing EZ-Way Cleaners.
A devout Catholic, he was a lifelong member of Sacred Hearts Parish. He served as an Usher, Eucharistic Minister, and on several Parish Councils. He was involved in the school expansion in 1959 and played a role in keeping the school open during the 1970’s. He was a proud member of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, and was recognized for his years of dedicated service to the poor and disadvantaged of the greater Haverhill area. He lived his faith in service to others. When managing Skateland, he employed several people who needed a hand up. He returned money to non-profit children’s groups who had arranged special skating sessions. He and his brother offered their business after hours to the owners of other cleaners who had lost their own buildings to fire. He regularly drove a customer to his dialysis treatments and another acquaintance to her cancer treatments.
Carbone is survived by his seven children and their families: Peter and his wife Donna of Haverhill and their family, Carolyn, her husband Jason, and their sons Landon and Parker Leverett, and Andrea Carbone and her significant other Matthew Horrigan of Fort Washington, Md.; Joseph and his wife Laura of Alexandria, Va., and their children, Katie and Emily Carbone; Mary and her husband David Harbison of Houlton, Maine, and their family Jonathan, his wife Kaylea, and their children Malon and Maeve Harbison, and Sarah, her husband Timothy, and their child, Paisley Williams; Kathleen and her husband Daniel Daley of Haverhill, and their family Caitlin and David Sianissian and their son Aidan, and daughter, Elizabeth Daley; Cynthia and her husband Daniel Comei of Haverhill and their children Angelina and Nicholas Comei; Thomas and his wife Joan of Haverhill, and their children, Michael, Anna , and Timothy Carbone; and Matthew and his wife Marie of Exeter, N.H., and their children, Justin and Alex Carbone. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Mary MacLeod of Raleigh, N.C. He was predeceased by his wife Ginnie, sister Margaret (Noonan), brothers Bob and Al and a granddaughter, Megan Daley.
Visiting hours are Tuesday, July 2 at the Driscoll Funeral Home 309 South Main St., Haverhill, from 4-7 p.m. Services begin Wednesday morning in the funeral home at 9 a.m. A Funeral Mass of Christian Burial will be held in Sacred Hearts Church, 165 South Main St. at 10 a.m. Burial with U.S. Navy Honors follows in Elmwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers and gifts, the family suggests donations to the Megan S. Daley Scholarship Fund, c/o Jennifer Beane, Stewardship and Donor Relations, Memorial Hall, 134 Hicks Way, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-9270; the Bradford Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, 31 So. Chestnut St., Bradford, MA 01835; and the American Cancer Society in care of Pentucket Kiwanis Donna’s Team, 48 Colby St., Bradford, MA 01835.