A former Haverhill High School coach and athletic director who died Tuesday will have his calling hours Sunday in the school he called home for decades.
The Haverhill School Committee Thursday night approved use of the Haverhill High gymnasium for Haverhill Athletic Hall of Famer R. John “Coach O” Ottaviani’s calling hours. Mayor Melinda E. Barrett called the move “very fitting” and recognized him as a “real presence” within the community.
“[He] supported all sorts of endeavors as far as fundraising for different groups, was always around, loved to go tailgating. I know when I had my store, I made a lot of subs on Saturdays so he could go to his beloved UMass games or occasional BC games. [He] was a very nice man,” Barrett said.
A lifelong resident, Ottaviani was a graduate of Haverhill High School, Class of 1957.
In life, Ottaviani was a 50-year coach and athletic director who began at Haverhill High School in 1963 as a physical education teacher. He was credited with saving the sports program during budget cuts during his tenure.
Ottaviani was awarded the Boston Globe All Scholastic Coach of the Year in 1980 and inducted into the Massachusetts Track Coaches Hall of Fame in 1985. In 2017, he was inducted into the Haverhill High School Hall of Fame.
He was an accomplished runner, completing 10 consecutive Boston Marathons.
He was also very lucky, having won $1 million in the state lottery in 2021 as WHAV reported at the time.
Committee member Paul A. Magliochetti also shared his condolences.
“He’s going to be missed,” he said. “I know we’ve been asked before to do something like this and we haven’t always agreed to do it but there’s only one Coach O. For those of us who were born in Haverhill, went to Haverhill High, he was just everywhere.”
He continued, “Back in the day he and Mr. Sapienza would do the run races in town. They were ranked runners. They were real legit runners. They really ran for Haverhill. So many students went to that school that he had an impact on. I don’t know if there will ever be anyone like him.”
Current Athletic Director Thomas E. O’Brien echoed Barrett’s and Magliocchetti’s praises of Ottaviani.
“I don’t think there’s another individual in the history of the city that had an impact on students than Coach O did,” he said. “I’m almost certain there will never be another Coach O as you said, so just an amazing man.”
With a motion by Magliocchetti followed by a second from Vice Chair Richard J. Rosa, the committee voted unanimously to allow use of the gym. Funeral Director Kevin B. Comeau, on behalf of Ottaviani’s family, thank the Committee.
Calling hours are Sunday, Jan. 26, from 2-5 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday, Jan. 27, at 10 a.m., at St. James Church of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish, 185 Winter St., Haverhill, with burial to follow at Linwood Cemetery, Haverhill.