He was larger than life, one of Carmine Michael DiSunno’s daughters said this week. The patriarch of the DiSunno family of Amagansett and the “son” of the Mike DiSunno and Son excavating company died on Sunday of complications of kidney failure. He was 85.
Although Mr. DiSunno had not been in the driver’s seat of a truck for almost 30 years, he was still running his business’s office along with his wife, Theodora DiSunno, whom he married in 1961. But he was not above showing up to a job site or encouraging young people just starting their careers in the excavating and trucking business.
Last year, Mr. DiSunno received his 61-year pin from the Amagansett Fire Department, where he rose from captain to assistant chief and then chief.
He was a bay fisherman and waterfowl hunter, and he and his wife traveled extensively, returning every year to their favorite spots — Bar Harbor, Me., and St. Lucia in the West Indies.
Mr. DiSunno was born at Southampton Hospital on July 8, 1940, to Amato Michael DiSunno and the former Josephine Falkowski. Growing up on Bunker Hill Road in Amagansett, he attended the Amagansett School and graduated from East Hampton High School, where he played football and met his future wife, Theodora Proferes. He was a member of St. Peter’s Chapel in Springs and served as an altar boy there.
Theresa DiSunno of East Hampton, one of the couple’s three daughters, said this week that as a younger man, Mr. DiSunno enlisted in the Air Force, where he served as an airman second class and dedicated crew chief from 1959 to 1962. He remained dedicated to the church throughout his time in the Air Force, as an altar server every Sunday.
“He shined so bright” during his enlistment, his daughter said, that his supervisors wanted him to become a career airman. But the South Fork beckoned him, and he returned to Amagansett, stepping into an ownership role in his father’s excavating company in 1963, the two going on to form Mike DiSunno and Son Inc.
His funeral procession yesterday was led by a company tractor-trailer that Mr. DiSunno called “The Horse,” followed by a fire truck that transported him from the funeral service at St. Peter’s Chapel to Most Holy Trinity Cemetery on Cedar Street, where he was buried.
In addition to his wife and daughter Theresa, Mr. DiSunno is survived by his daughters Deborah DiSunno of Amagansett and Carmen Failla of Stamford, Conn. Also surviving are a sister, Suzanne DiSunno-Brown of Amagansett and Atlanta, and a brother, John DiSunno of Amagansett. He leaves four grandchildren, Barry Michael Bistrian, Brett Carmine Bistrian, Michael Failla, and Ana Failla, and two great-grandchildren, Kennedy and Bo Bistrian.
The family has asked that memorial donations be made to the Amagansett Fire Department, P.O. Box 911, Amagansett 11930, or Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church at 79 Buell Lane in East Hampton.
