Palmetto Bay

His life spanned Italy, Caracas and Miami — with friends in all three. He died of COVID

Updated August 06, 2021 11:03 AM

Riccardo Gasparini, who grew up in Italy and Venezuela before moving to Palmetto Bay, died of complications from COVID-19. He was 61.

This is the story of a man I knew who could wrestle whatever life threw at him.

Father, friend, companion, confidant, scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer Riccardo Gasparini died July 27 of complications from COVID-19. He was 61.

He lost his mother when he was 16 after she had been sick for four years. He lost his father two years later, and was an orphan the week after his 18th birthday.

But he persevered, despite living with Tourette syndrome and the tics it caused since he was 6 years old. It made him brilliant and he wouldn’t take medication. He thought fast, worked fast, and could talk about anything. He remembered everything he learned.

Except for directions in Miami: He did love his Garmin.

He loved inventing. His Green Luggage, a portable energy device, kept my Mom alive one more day in hospice when the power went out.

FIU graduate

He got his master’s and Ph.D. degrees at Florida International University’s College of Engineering. It was one of his happiest days when he received that Ph.D. It was a challenge he set for himself and he did it, at age 55. Everyone cheered for him at graduation.

He lived in Palmetto Bay, but he loved growing up in Modena, Italy, and Caracas, Venezuela. He was the equivalent of an Eagle Scout in both those countries. He sailed and loved hiking high up into the Alps.

He later served with the United Nations Blue Helmets, the military peacekeepers, when he was in his 20s. He was deployed to Beirut and later Somalia. He was proud to help, but agonized over war.

Fan of U2, Clapton, Rolling Stones

Riccardo loved music and traveled long distances to see his favorite bands.

He saw his first concert, Emerson, Lake & Palmer in Milan, when he was 13. He saw The Rolling Stones all over Europe and the U.S. He loved U2, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, The Who and Roger Daltrey, Elton John, Bowie, Yes, Pearl Jam and Clapton. He knew all the words to all the songs. I even dragged him to a Billy Joel concert.

He loved movies and television. He watched the original “Star Trek” with Captain Kirk over and over again. He laughed into tears at British comedy shows and I think he learned a lot of English through them.

He knew so many languages, and that made traveling with Riccardo amazing, but he hated to fly. He never worried about figuring out trains.

Once, we discovered I had made a mistake for the day to pick up a rental car in a small Italian town. Turns out it was Ferragosto, Aug. 15, and “even the Pope takes a holiday this day, Christina,” he said. Our reservation was for the day before.

Riccardo hopped us off one train and we hurried through the station to catch a different one to the airport. He knew, correctly, that there would be rental cars there. I can still see him carrying both our rolling bags up all those old Italian station stairs. He was so strong.

Became an American citizen

Riccardo was very proud to become an American citizen in 2018. Every morning at Starbucks he would have his coffee and lemon loaf, or a croissant, and read the U.S. and global news on his iPad. He always wanted to know what was happening. He read the world news in other languages too.

He volunteered to grill at every backyard party. He loved to swim and was on the swim team in high school. He briefly played in a band and would have loved to be a rocker like Mick Jagger, whom he could imitate perfectly. He studied classical guitar at a conservatory and could play almost any song you asked.

As an engineer with his own company, he loved a construction puzzle.

Once, there was a fire escape behind an older Lincoln Road building that had a jazz club upstairs. No one could figure out how to fix the escape stairs. But Riccardo designed something new, and the Miami Beach inspectors were thrilled. It passed.

He was the professional engineer for so many South Florida buildings. He ran himself ragged making plans for new ones, trying to fix older ones, and helping people who needed him for renovations.

He loved the Miami Heat and Italian soccer. He loved brunch and eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, peaches and Prosecco, and Dewar’s White Label.

He loved listening to local bands at local bars, and he loved to laugh and dance. He loved all his friends at Miller’s Ale House in Palmetto Bay.

He loved strawberry milkshakes from Shake Shack, and eating at Trattoria Luna on Vigilia di Natale. He loved Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, where we walked.

He skied black diamond runs into his 50s. He loved the cold and the snow, and the mountains near where he grew up, and also in the U.S. though they weren’t nearly tall enough.

There’s a lot of the word “love” here, because Riccardo did love a lot.

He loved his sons Ruben and Carlo fiercely, and proudly, as they grew into men. He carried in his heart his son Alberto in Spain, and his brother Carlo in Chile. He loved my children. And me.

He waited too long to go to the hospital. He never even got a cold.

Riccardo’s friends called him a Renaissance man. He was curious, smart, honorable, brave, funny, good and true. He truly “shone like the sun,” the lyrics to one of his favorite Pink Floyd songs.

He will be missed.

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Obituary: Riccardo Gasparini of Miami dies of COVID-19 at 61 | Miami Herald

Obituary: Riccardo Gasparini of Miami dies of COVID-19 at 61 | Miami Herald

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