Passport photo of Roberto Verdone

Born November 1, 1888

Photo taken in Italy in late 1924 or early 1925, age 36.

He worked hard all his life on the unproductive soil of Italy, unloading coal from ships in Montreal, fighting in the war of 1915 to 1918, and raising a family of five children, at the time of the great depression.

But, his most difficult battle was to take his family out of impoverished Italy and bring it to prosperous Canada. He head much and was very knowledgeable of the Bible, geography, history, and astronomy. While his formal education was limited, his voracious love of reading made him very well informed and much above most people of his age and time. He was always well respected in his community.

There is always a fond feeling in looking through his books (I have his Italian Bible) and finding notes he kept on small pieces of paper of particular items of his interest.