Aldo J Mazzaferro

With regret and sadness, but also great pride, joy and a feeling of celebration, the family of Aldo J. Mazzaferro, aged 104, announces his passing on December 16, 2025 after a brief illness. Aldo was a lifelong resident of Leominster and passed very peacefully, surrounded by his children and loved ones. Aldo was born on November 11, 1921, to Nicola and Costanza Mazzaferro at their home on Eden Glen in Leominster. His birthday fell on one of the first Armistice Days (now Veterans Day), leading Aldo often to remark that he “never had to go to school on [his] birthday.” Aldo attended Lincoln Grammar School, then graduated from Leominster High School in 1939 and the College of the Holy Cross in 1943. During college, he worked over 20 hours a week at Dupont Company, commuting from Leominster to Worcester in an old Packard with classmates. While at HC he worked at the campus library and played trumpet in the marching band. After graduating with a degree in Accounting, he joined the firm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. as an auditor. His job took him to Central America for long periods of time, where he audited banana plantations in countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and others. After some years of that, he was seeking a return home and, in 1947, joined the local accounting firm of Baker & Baker. Later he started his own accounting practice in Leominster after he passed the CPA exam in 1949. However, in Aldo’s personal life, an event of far greater significance took place in that year. In May 1949, Aldo married the love of his life, Anna R. (Guglielmi), of Fitchburg, in a marriage that was to last 67 years until Anna’s death in 2016. Together, they raised five children and supported many local educational and community institutions, including St. Anna’s Parish and Grammar School, Notre Dame and St. Bernard’s High Schools, and Fitchburg State University. Especially active in FSU’s Center for Italian Culture, they were extremely honored to have a building at Fitchburg State named for them. Anna was an active force in Aldo’s life from the day they met; he would often say that, out of everything, his greatest accomplishment was marrying Anna. Aldo practiced as a CPA for most of his professional life, with clients up and down Main Street, but also became very involved in Leominster’s burgeoning plastics industry. Over his career he owned and operated several injection molding businesses, including Art Plastics Company, Cardinal Comb Company and First Plastics, Inc. In the 1960s, Cardinal Comb was one of the largest producers of afro hair picks in the country. Beyond the CPA practice and the plastics, there was a third career - in banking and consumer finance. Aldo was a board member of Merchants National Bank and other financial institutions and was a founding member of both the Leominster Finance Company and the Leominster Credit Union. At LCU, he was an early Chair of the Board and, much to his amusement, was issued a savings passbook with the account number 0001, which he has kept to this day. Above all, Aldo was a true entrepreneur. He valued hard work and accomplishment, and he perceived his businesses as living and breathing things. He always had tremendous energy – early morning and late at night. His nickname, given by his mother when he was a boy, was “Il Furioso” (The Furious One). But his success was partly driven by the hardship he experienced when young, including the devastating early death of his father when Aldo was two. He often commented that he had no father growing up, which made everything more difficult for him. An injury would eventually cause him to be ineligible for service in World War II, but it proved to be a turning point in his life, convincing him to pursue professional work and seek a college education. Being a CPA made him an expert on companies and that expertise served him well as he ran his businesses, expanded and acquired new ones, and became an astute investor in the stocks of other companies. Leisure activities were not Aldo’s strongest suit, but he loved high school sports, especially when his children or nephews or nieces were playing, and attending Holy Cross football games. He also liked antique cars, and traded for and owned many over the course of his life, including his pride and joy, the 1964 Cadillac convertible still parked in his garage today. But overall, Aldo’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were always top of mind, and he had questions about them at each visit. His last birthday party, the 104th, was a festival of happiness, attended by about 30 of his descendants and connecting four generations of family to celebrate the patriarch. Always easygoing, when people would ask him how he was doing, his favorite response was, “I’ve got no complaints.” Aldo is survived by his five children, son Aldo Jr. (Margaret), of Stony Brook, NY; son Anthony, of Westminster, MA; daughter Mary Anne Taylor, of Leominster; son Edward (Barbara), of Tiverton, RI; and daughter Rosemary (Robert) Pepin, of Leominster. He is also survived by 13 loving grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren, including two on the way. Aldo is preceded in death by his wife Anna R. (Guglielmi) Mazzaferro; his infant daughter Caroline, his parents Nicola and Costanza (DiRusso) Mazzaferro; his siblings Anna (Bovenzi), Antonio, Albert, Emile, Amedeo, Joseph, Eva (LeBlanc) and baby Nicolina; along with many beloved in-laws, nephews and niece.

Aldo's funeral will be held on Monday, December 22,2025 from the Wright-Roy Funeral Home 109 West St. Leominster, with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 am in St. Anna Church 199 Lancaster St, Leominster. Burial will follow at St. Leo's Cemetery, Leominster. Calling hours will be held on Sunday, December 21, 2025 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the Wright-Roy Funeral Home. 

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