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Romeo Begin Obituary
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Memories and Condolences
for Romeo Begin
1995 March, Anza Borrego, Philip age 9
Gerry Begin
October 26, 2010
To all of you who visited Rome's Guest Book.
Thank you all for your messages.
What a nice tribute this is, sharing all our memories. I wish we could find a way to do these things while people were still with us. Rome would have been pleasantly surprised to learn how his many pursuits were appreciated. Maybe he can pick up on it somehow.
I am so grateful to my grandson Philip, who left a tough schedule of full-time work and school to come here to help me. He worked so hard. And my daughter Tierza Lynne, whose countless10-hour journeys down here to help me, brought her smack into the middle of lots of hard work and stress. Things got a little tough here sometimes and she was there for me. Even though her own life was stressful enough, she kept my sprits up. My lifesaver. My rock!
I thank you all for your thoughtful words. It is truly appreciated.
Gerry Begin
1989 Breakfast
Tierza Bernard
October 25, 2010
I was fortunate to have Romeo for a Dad. It seems the possibilities were endless in terms of creative things to do. Mom and I enjoyed the visual tactile and design aspects of going to the great fabric stores and sewing clothes, in between her work as a legal or literary secretary and my school. We went to great lengths with creative cooking using “Joy,” or Adele Davis. Rome helped me with sottering when I was learning to make silver jewelry. When it was time to start driving, he came home with well-running cars, first a big old boat of an American car that I personalized with Op-art contact paper to the dashboard, then an orange VW convertible bug by Carmen Ghia. His gardens of kale, tomatoes and zucchini were legendary. There was mostly educational TV and his early mute button for commercials on the other channels. After I was working in CT as a dietitian, he would show me how to get my new 1979 MG to start on a cold winter morning by means of a metric wrench, to let a little air into the carburetor, worked like a charm! Calm and patient, he never tired of being invited to dinner at my apartment then requested to put together some heavy, complicated project such as a Teak stereo bench.
Most recently we enjoy playing piano, and Dad enjoyed hearing tunes from old songbooks of the prior century, “Solace” and other classics. He could even remember the event in the news behind an old song “Great Santa Barbara Earthquake” from 1925. He liked Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Teleman for composers so it’ll be inspiring to try and play some simplified versions in his memory. He said he was from New Hampshire, not particularly talkative yet thoughtful and meaningful in his speech at significant moments.
Since he stopped flying in the last 12 years or so and Philip’s dedication to competitive swimming, Dad’s modesty was such that Philip never actually knew his grandfather was an airplane expert. Always calm and patient, he liked to read, historical fiction like Allan Eckert, James Mitchener, or HG Wells. In the old days of CT, back in the late 60’s or 70’s, he’d give Mom a kiss saying he was going to Johnnycake. When we heard a plane over the house we’d go outside and see him tipping his wings over our home.
October 25, 2010
Thank you all.
What a nice tribute this is, sharing all our memories. I wish we could find a way to do these things while people were still with us. Rome would have been pleasantly surprised to learn how his many pursuits were appreciated. Maybe he can pick up on it somehow.
I am so grateful to my grandson Philip, who left a tough schedule of full-time work and school to come here to help me. He worked so hard. And my daughter Tierza Lynne, whose countless
10-hour journeys down here to help me, brought her smack into the middle of lots of hard work and stress. Things got a little tough here sometimes and she was there for me. Even though her own life was stressful enough, she kept my sprits up. My lifesaver. My rock!
I thank you all for your thoughtful words. It is truly appreciated.
Gerry Begin
Bill Buyak
October 8, 2010
Romeo Begin, Fred Meyer and me, Bill Buyak, were the neighborhood airplane builders in Bakerville, New Hartford CT. We lived near each other and would inspect each others work to look for any possible problems. When questions arose regarding an airplane's construction, our main source of information was Romeo. Romeo was always more than willing to share his knowledge and expertise to guide us through a problem area. His knowledge and expertise was highly valued.
On many occasions I would go to the hanger, at Johnnycake Airport, Burlington,CT to work on my airplane. I always knew that Romeo was at the hanger even before I walked in because I could hear his clasical music playing. That was one of Romeo's trade marks.
So Romeo as you chart out the next landing site be advised the Jonnycake Airport is out of business and that the old landing strip is now a corn field. I'm sure you have found a better landing place.
Fred Meyer
October 7, 2010
Another Tale of “Romeo The Pilot” !!
Here’s a photo of Rome and his Starduster taken in 1971 at Johnnycake Airport in Burlington Conn. His Starduster had a Lycoming O-290G engine (Converted Airforce ground power unit). One day while flying around the Connecticut countryside, his engine blew a jug (cylinder) which allows a lot of oil and other things to fly into your face and goggles, in addition to stopping the propeller. Fortunately, Rome was close to Johnnycake Airport and set up a normal “dead stick” landing which he accomplished successfully. Johnnycake Airport has a 2000 foot long runway with tree lines at both ends so no room for error. A normal approach with an engine that is running requires about 50 foot max “over the trees” so as not to overshoot the short skinny runway. It took a lot of skill to dead stick his plane into this airport without any damage. Rome replaced the ground power unit with a certified Lycoming O-320 150 HP engine and enjoyed many more hours of open cockpit flying in the Starduster.
Allen Meyer, Sr.
October 2, 2010
There's an old adage, probably dates back to the birth of aviation, goes something like this:
There are old pilots,
There are bold pilots,
There are no old, bold pilots.
Well Rome sure put that thing to rest. The man spends years building an airplane from scratch, and when finished, climbs into it and says "Let's see how this baby flies" – now that's BOLD!
What else can be said about a man who touched the hearts of all he met, and the worst expletive I ever heard him say was 'Goldurn', as in “Goldurn rabbits got into the garden again”. I totally concur with all of the beautiful memorials on these pages, and could add many, many more. But instead I'd like to share an incident that happened back around 1970. The whole family was at a small airfield near New Hartford Connecticut named Johnnycake. I was admiring Romes Ercoupe, a sharp little craft from the 1940's, (they look a lot like military trainers – I did a search for ercoupe and got 120,000 hits, many great pictures available, take a look). Anyhow, Rome asked me if I'd like to go for a flight - “you bet!' I replied. So, after flying around and admiring the New England scenery, it came time to land. The following is my recollection of what happened:
Airplane: Slight thump on touchdown, slight rumble from the wheels.
Rome: “Uh oh!”
Me: “Uh oh what ?!”
Rome: “Goldurn brakes failed!”
Me: (Thinking, Goldurn? This can't be good) - “Is that bad?”
Rome: (Calmly) “Could be...”
Just then he started swerving the plane left and right, tires screeching horribly, I'm watching the end of the runway rapidly approaching, wondering if we were about to become part of those trees in the near distance. But, luckily his expert skill brought the little Coupe to a stop just at the end of the runway. And I don't recall he or I ever saying another word about it. Incidentally, this happened long before the space shuttle, and I understand that's a maneuver the astronauts refer to as 'serpentine', except they do it in the air to bleed off airspeed.
So 'Happy Landings' dear brother-in-law, you'll be missed by many.
Deb Meyer
October 1, 2010
My 1st memories of Rome were when he lived in the red house next to us in CT, a nice man, a friend of my fathers, who were building airplanes together, first alone then married to my Aunt Gerry.
Rome was the most un-assuming man, soft spoken, patience, kind hearted, and most of all humble. I never heard him raise his voice or speak an unkind word about anyone.
I recently went to a car show where I saw for the 2nd time in my life, an Avanti, and I immediately thought of Rome, and his Avanti parked in the driveway.
I’m certain that bird that flew into the house the day Rome left was in fact Rome, flying high like Romeo always loved. I will always remember your quiet smile.
Fred Meyer
October 1, 2010
Romeo, or better known by many as “Rome the pilot and airplane builder” I can’t say enough about him. When we met as next door neighbors in Bakerville Conn in 1965, there was an immediate friendship which was emphasized our flying interests and fascination with biplanes. He taught me so much as we became partners in building two Starduster Too’s. What a superb craftsman, and a superb person. There was nothing you could not like about this man. He became more of a brother than a brother-in-law to me. He will always be in my memory
catherine burke
October 1, 2010
My memory of Rome is that he was a quiet gentle man.And now I know that he was someone who truly lived through his soul.
Christopher Meyer
October 1, 2010
Growing up as a kid I have very fond memories of the wonderful house Rome built in Connecticut. A childs dream...a house with a playground of real planes in the garage and basement, motorcycles to fantasy drive, parked cars to prtend and acres and acres of woods to search for the bad wolf and wicked witch. Visiting Romes house was just that..a place to use your imagination and dream big. Rome thank you for the wonderful chilhood memories.
Allen Meyer
September 30, 2010
As a kid I thought Rome was unbelievably cool. I remember hanging out in his garage in CT, the handmade musket, the dusty Avanti, the WW11 fighter plane and him in his rocker using the world's first hand made mute button on TV commercials. If life were longer, I would wish for my son Sebastian to get to know him. Sebastian would be so interested in some of Rome's creations.
Kim Meyer
September 30, 2010
so many small thing I Remember about Uncle Rome...one in particular , when i was very small, and lived next door, when we went to visit, me and my brother would go into what i considered the living room , and admiring his replica cars, we were not supposed to touch, although we did on occasion, he never yelled at us, walking in the room and seeing us with those cars.....I remember his quiet gentleness, always kind to us kids even when we were loud....I never remember him ever raising his voice to us :) You will always be remembered.
bobby meyer
September 28, 2010
Why do I feel so sure that Rome's spirit is flying freely somehere...? Just feel it so sure.
limited time and space to say something special for an exceptional person.
This beautiful, thoughtful memorial written by gerry-well, Rome would be proud! How great they met and had the time to share so many of the same interests. As the visiting nurse even noted:"make a great team"
Always busy making things, building planes,furniture, working in the vegetable garden back in Connecticut..reading books on history,loving music, quietly observant and funny.Too much to just sum up in a paragraph or two.
A bird flew into the house the day Rome left us. What atribute to a great old pilot!
Bobby
Tierza Bernard
September 26, 2010
Dad was a brave and gentle soul, quietly came up with the solution to just about any problem upon returning from a trip to the garage. His memory is treasured and he is surely missed. Tierza
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