Carmelo Calabrese

Carmelo Calabrese was known as “Cal” to the countless friends he made so easily throughout his 95 years of life. The son of Sicilian immigrants who came to America with just the clothes on their backs, he raised himself up from extremely humble beginnings to become a math expert, an award-winning engineering professor, an ahead-of-his-time inventor, a skilled amateur artist, and, most importantly, a devoted husband and father. As a young boy, Cal shined shoes for a nickel a pair on city streets and snuck out at night to help the janitor sweep floors at a nearby soft drink factory for free soda. In between shoeshines, he would sketch the faces of people passing by with a piece of charcoal. One of his shoeshine customers recognized Cal’s talent and offered him a scholarship to go to art school. Incredibly, he declined, saying he was going to go to college to get a PhD, and then teach others. Even more incredibly, that is exactly what he did. After serving his country in the United States Marines, Cal became the only one of his siblings to attend college. He earned a PhD in a challenging electrical engineering discipline and went on to teach at the University of Missouri, where he was honored as “Professor of the Year."

On top of his teaching duties, Cal conducted substantive, important research. He designed and built the first solar/wind machine to be used on houses decades before the world became focused on renewable energy. The device used solar panels when it was daylight and a windmill when it was windy to power batteries inside the house that stored the electricity.

In his retirement years, Cal returned to his early love of art, creating scores of beautiful landscape and still-life paintings, and sharing them as gifts for his loved ones. He and his wife Patricia (Pat) Calabrese nee Drew loved to travel -- especially to England, Pat’s home country. Cal also often spoke about the memorable trip he took with his children and grandchildren to see his own relatives back in Sicily. Cal is survived by his wife Pat, two children (Debbie and Denis) four grandchildren (Daniel and wife Katie, Lisa and husband Ray, Drew, Grace and Mother Toby), three great grandchildren (Henry, Theo and Jackson) and special friend Deanna. Cal Calabrese was a true gentleman. He lived with dignity, honesty, character, compassion, and humor -- and he took a humble approach to everything he did and with all those he met. Cal touched many and will be missed by everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.

A celebration of life will be held for immediate family at a later date.