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Wellesley mourns Joseph Perdoni Jr., 38, owner of pizza shop

Community honors his contributions, launches effort to help his family

Joseph Perdoni Jr. was the owner of Old School Italian Pizzeria in Wellesley.George F. Doherty & Sons Funeral Home

Running into mile 13 of the 2015 Boston Marathon, Carol Chaoui missed many of the friendly faces who had lined Washington Street in Wellesley to cheer her on in years past. The rain and cold had kept them inside.

But not Joseph Perdoni Jr., who stood outside his shop, Old School Italian Pizzeria, with his staff and Chaoui’s son, screaming her name. The next week, he honored Chaoui, a frequent customer, with a pizza on the house.

“It kept me going for another 13 miles,” she said of his marathon greeting. “I thought it was so beautiful.”

Mr. Perdoni, a Wellesley native, husband, and father of two known for his larger-than-life personality and generosity, died unexpectedly on May 13. He was 38. The cause of death is unknown, said his father, Joseph Perdoni Sr.

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Joseph Perdoni Jr., moved to Sherborn last year with his wife, Sarah, son, Joey, 10, and daughter, Reece, 7, but was actively involved in his hometown, where he had starred at football while at Wellesley High.

Now, as friends and family grapple with his death, the Wellesley community is coming together in various ways to honor his contributions and help his family.

A GoFundMe page has been established for those who want to donate to a trust fund for his children. As of Wednesday afternoon, almost $20,000 had been raised.

Chaoui, who organizes running events in town, is hosting a 5K on Thursday morning in his name. Runners will meet outside the Starbucks at 101 Linden St. at 8:45 a.m., and will be asked to donate to the fund, Chaoui said.

“He was just such a character, great sense of humor,” she said. “He was a gentle giant.”

Jesse Davis, Wellesley High’s head football coach, said the school’s alumni association will forgo its annual golf outing in exchange for a dinner fund-raiser at the Italo American Educational Club in Perdoni’s name. The June 18 event will also benefit the fund.

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He was “such a great personality and a great part of the community,” Davis said.

Constantly giving what he could, whether it be a slice of pizza or a helping hand, Mr. Perdoni “grew on everybody” and never asked for anything in return, his father said. He let kids hang out in his shop, which he had operated since 2011, even if they weren’t eating pizza and he talked sports with them.

“He didn’t make you feel like a customer,” his father said. “He made you feel like a person ... he was a giver.”

He always made time for his own family too, by taking breaks from work to have dinners with his wife and children before returning back to the pizzeria, his father said. “He will just live in our hearts forever.”

The pizzeria will continue on, said Charles Doherty, a lifelong friend of Perdoni and employee. Pressed for words, he noted Perdoni’s loyalty and love for life.

“He just respected everybody, no matter who they were,” Doherty said.

A member of Wellesley High’s class of 1995 and a tight end for the football team, Perdoni was recruited for Division 1 football and attended Georgia Institute of Technology on a scholarship. He later had his sports jacket framed and put on display in his pizzeria, said lifelong family friend Mary Anne McDonald.

Last month she picked up a pie for her husband, who had just been diagnosed with cancer, from the shop. Sensing something was wrong, Mr. Perdoni asked if she was all right.

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He asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” she recalled, fighting tears. Once again, the pizza was free of charge.


Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com