Carl Moretti

Carl Moretti was a successful man in all the ways that matter. He had a loving family, a trusted business, a professional demeanor and a winsome personality. Being tenacious on the job, competitive in his dealings and meticulous in his appearance (clothes, house, car), Carl expected the same of others, which made them better on the job, too. He was charming and witty, humorous and positive, honest and sincere, caring and encouraging. Carl was seen as a mentor because he had a way of helping people accomplish their goals, especially those that contributed to the good of others. He never had a bad thing to say about anyone, and as a result, everyone who knew him as a friend counted it a true privilege.

Carl’s story began at a time of optimism in American life, when the nation was recovering from WWII. Families had sacrificed much, yet they were determined to make the world a better place for their children. Carlo and Edith (McManus) Moretti of New York City did their part through his job as a mechanic and her work as seamstress and cook. Then on July 21, 1947, they welcomed their son Carl into their hearts and lives.

Carl and his sister Marian grew up in the Bronx and lived in a neighborhood full of playmates. They played stickball and baseball, preferred their pizzas with a thin crust (NY style) and rooted for the Yankees. In Little League, Carl found his niche behind the plate. He was given the nickname Yogi, because Yogi Berra was an ace catcher who played his entire career with the New York Yankees. With his band of friends, Carl walked to school at PS 48 for what seemed like miles to him. Fairly often he would leave the house without his lunch, but since the family lived in an apartment, his mother could simply toss the bag down to him from the window.

Being a somewhat mischievous child, Carl kept his mother on her toes. One day, when she was painting the basement stairs, she anticipated that people would still need to go up and down, so she painted every other step. Young Carl decided he would use every other stair alright—the painted ones. However, it must have been Karma working, because when he got half way down the stairs he slipped and fell the rest of the way down!

Carl was about six years old when the family made a move to Michigan. It was on a trip out west that they stopped in Kalamazoo on their way to California to visit his mother’s sister, and they never left. They settled from big city life into small city living, and Carlo wanted to try his hand at farming. He chose to grow tomatoes one year, but he did not know how many tomatoes each plant could produce. That year, the family harvested so many tomatoes that they couldn't give them all away and had to beg people to take them.

Like many teens, Carl was into music, fast cars and motorcycles. Like his father, he was mechanically inclined and liked to work on cars. At one point in his life, Carl built a car from the ground up and finished with a paint job. The cars he counted as his favorites included Firebirds, Monte Carlos, Opel GTs, hot rod Lincolns, Magnums and Z28 Camaros. With speed on the brain and the foot pedal, it was little wonder that Carl was once caught speeding going over 100 mph. It was a stripped down car (chassis) with Brunswick chairs as seats that almost took flight. Fortunately it was a stretch of freeway that was not yet open to the public so the police were sympathetic

Carl graduated from Portage High School in 1965 and did a short stint at Western Michigan University. He went to work at Depatie Fluid Power and helped develop many products that made the business successful. As one of the partners, Carl would be instrumental in growing the company over his 44-year career.

In 1967, Carl became the husband of Patricia Bradley, whom he had known since junior high school. Together they parented their son Jon and daughter Michele, plus Murphy the dog. Hot Rod Dad managed to soup up any “toy” so it ran on nitrous oxide, including the jet boat which apparently wasn’t quite fast enough! He went snowshoeing and skiing, played golf and watched the New York Yankees and Detroit Red Wings with anyone who wanted to join him with a bowl of Cherry Garcia ice cream or a mug of “genius” (Guinness) beer.

Carl and Pat enjoyed a life of travel that took them to Ireland, Scotland, Italy, England, Japan, Hawaii and their annual fall bed & breakfast trips with Jon and Kay Simpson. With the entire family, they went to Las Vegas in 2012, to Cedar Point in 2013 and in 2014, they visited the Bronx with Michele, Jon and grandson Jake. It was great to be in Carl’s old stomping grounds, recalling the days gone by when songs like “In My Room”, “They Call Me Mellow Yellow” and of course anything by the Beatles captured the laid-back side of Carl. His family will long remember Carl’s easy-going take on life ("None of us get out of here alive") and his legacy to "make things better for the next" generation.

Carl Moretti of Gun Lake, Michigan, age 68, died peacefully December 3, 2015 at Borgess Hospital, Kalamazoo, after a valiant battle with frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Services will be held on Monday, December 7, 2015 at 4:00 PM at the Life Story Funeral Homes, Betzler – Kalamazoo; 6080 Stadium Drive (269-375-2900) followed by a reception in the Life Story Center. Carl is survived by his wife of 48 years, Patricia (Bradley) Moretti; 2 children: Jon (Bobbi) Moretti, Michele Moretti (Philippe Sylvestre); 4 grandchildren: Jake, Mia and Zoe Moretti and Parker Sylvestre; mother-in-law, Kathryn Virginia Bradley; sister-in-law, Jill (John) Blonder and brother-in-law, Scott Bradley (Raquel Prymak). He was preceded in death by his parents and by his sister, Marian Rose Bush. Please visit Carl’s personal web page at www.lifestorynet.com, where you can archive a favorite memory or photo and sign his online guestbook before coming to the funeral home. Memorial contributions may be made to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD).