Frank Colavecchia of Gates was a soccer dad, a runner, a beloved colleague at Wegmans, a volunteer firefighter, all of this despite a medical condition that he dealt with for decades.
In addition, he was the sort of person who made and kept friends everywhere he went.
That explains why, after Frank’s sudden death from a heart attack on July 2 at age 65, hundreds of people came to the visitation for him at the Bartolomeo & Perotto Funeral Home. It’s why the funeral the next day on July 9 was packed at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hilton.
Frank lived with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory intestinal condition. It meant surgeries and other treatments, but it didn’t seem to slow him down. Indeed, it may have fueled him to do more.
A native of Rochester, he graduated from Cardinal Mooney High School, Monroe Community College, and, several years later, Rochester Institute of Technology.
At the time of his death, Frank was working in environmental health and safety at Wegmans Food Markets Inc., having gone there in 2007. He had done similar work for the Eastman Kodak Co. before the downsizing of 2004.
He had other jobs between Kodak and Wegmans, but it was during this time that he got his bachelor’s degree from RIT.
Dave DiMarco was Frank’s co-worker and good friend at Wegmans.
“Frank loved life,” DiMarco said. “Every minute of the day he had filled.”
Many of those minutes involved going to construction sites, making sure everything was done right. The OSHA compliance person is not always someone whom everyone welcomes. Not so with Frank.
“People, when they saw Frank, they knew he was there to make people safe,” DiMarco said. “And, off the clock, Frank was hysterical. He liked to make people laugh.”
Off the clock, and even on the clock, Frank liked to eat, four or five meals a day, plus snacks, plus several bottles of peach tea. He also never met a leftover he didn’t like. Friends and family wondered how someone so small, so light, could eat so much and not put on weight.
Frank coached his sons Jeff and Greg in soccer from the time they were little boys.
“He was positive,” Greg said. “He was not a yeller or a screamer. He was just a supporter of everybody, not just in soccer. I don’t think my dad had an enemy in anything he did.”
Frank put in more than 30 years volunteering with the Gates Fire District, rising through the ranks of the department.
“We’re going to miss him immensely,” Dan Cox, his fellow volunteer, said. “He was just devoted to whatever he did. The only way to do things for him was the right way. He was all in. For a little guy, he stood 10 feet tall.”
Frank took up running when he was in his 50s, starting with the beginner’s program at Fleet Feet in Rochester.
“He got the bug, and he just kept going,” said Ellen Brenner, Fleet Feet’s owner. “He became a mentor. He became a coach. He increased his distance. He got involved in things, and, when he got involved, he went 100 percent.”
The news of Frank’s death blindsided Brenner.
“It went viral,” she said. “One of his best friends posted something on our Facebook page, and there was just an overwhelming response of love. People are still posting. It was a shock. It was awful. He was one of the good guys, that’s who he was. He was one of the good guys.”.
Frank is survived by his wife, Maureen, his son Jeff and his spouse, Briania, his son Greg and his spouse, Jessica, as well as his sisters, Anne Marie Beachel and Lisa Augostini, and three grandchildren.
On the evening before he died, Frank got to see his granddaughters Olivia and Adelyn play soccer. Greg, their dad, is their coach.
After the game Frank texted DiMarco letting him know how the girls did. He was happy. They won.
Donations in Frank’s memory may be sent to Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, 733 Third Ave., Suite 510, New York, NY, 10017.
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