Philip L. Iampietro

Philip Iampietro, 98, of Ashlar Village in Wallingford died at home on June 13, 2022

Phil believed in the importance of family and was a devoted son, brother, husband, and father. He loved the ocean, to garden, to listen to the Big Band music of the 1940s, and most of all, to travel. His Naval service and business career brought him to every continent. He enjoyed watching sports and there were few that he did not excel at playing. He never gave up on his beloved Boston Red Sox and watched them beat the Seattle Mariners the night before he died.

Phil Louis Iampietro was born in 1923 in Middleboro, MA, the fifth of seven children of Italian immigrants, Leonardo and Maria Iampietro. His father was a shoemaker and his mother died when Phil was a small boy. Phil was educated in Middleboro schools and enrolled in the Massachusetts State College at Amherst (later the University of Massachusetts at Amherst) in the fall of 1941. His education was interrupted by World War II and he enlisted in the United States Navy in early 1943. He was put on the accelerated officer training path, completing the Navy’s V-12 program at Trinity College in Hartford and V-7 midshipman training at Notre Dame University in South Bend. He attained the rank of Lieutenant JG and was stationed in the Philippines after it was liberated from Japan. He remained in the Navy Reserves for ten years after the war and graduated from Massachusetts State College at Amherst in 1947 with a BA in Chemistry.

Phil spent his life married to one woman and one company. He wed Mary Louise Payne Shea in 1950 and they shared almost 67 adventurous years together. She was his inspiration and his backbone. Phil began working in sales for Lederle Laboratories in 1949, calling on pharmacies in central New York. As his career advanced, Phil, Mary Louise and their growing family were transferred to communities across the US, from Buffalo to Chicago to LA. In the 1960s, Phil was promoted to Lederle International and Mary Louise and Phil established a home in Franklin Lakes, NJ as Phil’s work took him-and sometimes Mary Louise-around the world. Among his accomplishments was the building of pharmaceutical distribution channels throughout the Middle East and Africa. More importantly, wherever Phil went, his gregarious personality and willingness to roll up his sleeves and get to work made him lasting friendships. When Phil retired in 1991, he and Mary Louise moved to Nantucket year-round.

Phil will be missed by his three surviving children, Philip Iampietro, Jr. and his wife Mina Koyanagawa, Meagan Burke and her husband Guthrie, and Hollis Barickman and her husband James; his daughter-in-law Canny Cahn Iampietro; five grandchildren, Guthrie Burke Jr., Hallie Burke, Sam Barickman, Shea Barickman, and James Barickman; a step-grandson, Dr. Ken Koyanagawa; and his younger brother, Pat Iampietro of Salinas, CA. He is predeceased by Mary Louise and their son, Thomas.

A Funeral Mass is planned for August 17, 2022 at 12 noon at St. Bridget of Sweden Church, 175 Main Street, Cheshire. Burial with Military Honors will follow in the New St. Bridget Cemetery, Cheshire. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Connecticut Hospice in Branford, CT.