Loss of good friends is never easy.
In the past two weeks, we have lost two friends who made living in State College better for everyone who knew them. Both were recognizable by many in the community, and both will be missed by family and friends. One fought a valiant four-year battle with cancer to the very end, and one succumbed to the vicious disease without most of his friends and family ever knowing about his illness.
I will always remember Lois Boller from her days in the old Dairy Queen on North Atherton Street and at the Greenberg Ice Rink, where she and her husband were fixtures in row K in section D for Icer hockey games.
I will always remember Lou Gatto for being a down-to-earth “good guy,” with a passion for all things Penn State.
It’s never easy to lose friends. It’s even tougher when they made an impact on so many people in the community.
I have known the Boller family dating back to my time as a player at Penn State. My favorite memories of Lois are when I would visit their DQ store and she would be making birthday cakes and would slip me some of the icing to tide me over. After, we’d catch up on family and I would get around to asking if Don was around. Then Lois would let out her trademark yell: “BOLLER!!!!”
I spoke to the Boller daughters at the viewing at the Mount Nittany United Methodist Church (Crowd was too big to hold at a funeral home!) and they all chuckled about how for years they didn’t know their dad had a first name!
Don and Lois have been such good friends to my family, as well as the entire Icer family. The whole Penn State hockey team attended the viewing as a show of respect for the Bollers. The Dairy Queen Puck giveaway day was always a big hit with our fans, as was the DQ Dilly Bar and Buster Bar giveaway! Don and Lois always snuck my kids a DQ treat when I wasn’t looking, and we celebrated our kids’ birthdays with DQ cakes decorated with their favorite movie characters or sports teams.
Don and Lois made a gift to the Penn State Ice Hockey Endowment in my honor. That’s the kind of folks they are and that’s why the members of the Boller family aren’t just good friends; they are family. Lois will be missed by family, friends, and customers, but she will never be forgotten.
The Penn State athletic family also lost a great friend and supporter of the program with the passing of “Sweet Lou” Gatto. Lou was a fixture at the All-Sports Museum and at most Penn State sporting events. He was a very active member of the Nittany Lion Club, and I saw him frequently at the State College Quarterback Club and the smaller, but equally enthusiastic Tailback Club. He was also a very active member of a number of Penn State booster clubs.
Baseball was Lou’s passion, and he enjoyed many a PSU baseball game or a night watching the Spikes. Lou was also a fixture at the Greater Scranton Penn State Alumni Chapter’s annual Penn State Night at Genetti’s Manor in Dickson City with his good friends Billy Gilchrist, J.K. Kowalski, and Tommy Ancuso. I have a picture of me with Lou, J.K., Tommy, and my father-in-law Smitty at the Jordan Center prior to a NLC event; it’s on my desk at home.
Lou was another friend who always supported the Icers and always believed we deserved a shot at being a varsity team. He loved it when the gift from Terry Pegula, a Carbondale native, made the jump to varsity status possible. One of his fellow Northeast Pennsylvania guys who came from a humble background was the one who made the new ice arena and varsity hockey a reality. Just a few months ago, Lou talked all about getting a group of his friends from Scranton to help us get a game in the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton Penguins Arena. Lou was buddies with coach Joe Paterno and SuePa and a frequent guest for dinners at their home. I am sure they had some of his homemade red wine and his late wife Angeline’s pasta dishes. Lou would always drop off a bottle of his red wine for me at the rink or the NLC office—which I immediately took to my car! I used to trade stories about making homemade wine as my grandparents on the Battista side used to have us kids smash up the grapes. (What fun and what a mess!)
In early January, one of my former players, Ben Bouma, who is helping as an advisor on the new Pegula Ice Arena, joined me for a quick stop at Burger King for breakfast on our way to meeting with the architects. There sat Lou Gatto holding court with a bunch of regular guys grabbing breakfast before work. Ben and I joined Lou and in 10 minutes he was talking to Ben like they were best friends. Lou had a knack for doing that and he was never shy to offer an opinion! So the day that Lou’s obituary hit the papers I got an e-mail from Ben asking if it was the same guy he had met just a few weeks earlier, and he was shocked. Ben met Lou exactly one time. It was enough to leave a lasting impression.
Lou was a bigger-than-life character. He didn’t have a lot of earthly possessions. He gave his time, his heart, and his soul to all who knew him. I was away on business when Lou was laid to rest. I wish I could have been there to help tell stories and celebrate his life. He sure as heck wouldn’t have wanted a bunch of people sitting around crying. Rather, he’d have wanted everyone to tell a few stories, drink a little homemade red wine and eat a big plate of pasta.
He always called me Coach. He always treated me with respect. He always had a great story to tell.
Sorry I couldn’t say goodbye in person, my old friend. I will always keep that picture of us from the Jordan Center on my desk at home. It always brings a smile to my face.
