Franklin Dennis Minnella

Míos you dad, love you forever

Frank was a wonderful light in life, giving laughs and lessons, all wrapped up. His business like mind had him pushing forward and his determination was always inspiring. We’ll miss you, Frank. Thank you for everything.

My family and I send our condolences to his family and loved ones.

Miss you dad.

Daddy, we love you so much! Thank you for all your love, support, kind words, and crazy sense of humor!

Love, Miranda, Ronny, Daylee, Olin, and Fletch

I had a dream about you the other night, I was in the kitchen with Morgan and Grandma. I saw you talking to Morgan and then you walked over to Paddy and you started playing with her. I walked over to you and we started talking but I don’t know what it was about, then we hugged and I woke up. Ever since you passed it’s like everywhere I look I’ll find something that reminds me of you, and then it feels like you’re still here. The world feels really different without you Grandpa, I miss you.

You went back home ahead of us.
You have changed into a fancier wardrobe.
Your memory stays with us and the love of your family speaks for you.
Rest in peace in the hands of God.

EULOGY FOR FRANKLIN “FRANK” DENNIS MINNELLA
April 19, 2025 Funeral Services

Thank you everyone for coming today to say farewell and pay tribute to my brother and to support our family and friends during this time of grief; but also of joy that
Frank is no longer in pain;
is back with our mother and father whom I know he dearly missed;
and that Easter, the day of Resurrection, is just a few hours away.

When our parents died, Mom, Linda Romano, in 1982 and only 65, and Dad, Anthony Minnella, in 1990, only 75, neither Frank nor our brother Tom nor I spoke at the services. It was not the custom among Italian Americans Catholics. I don’t know about Tom and Frank, but I do know I always regretted not having said a few words. On this occasion, I will do my best to speak.

Many of you knew Frank personally. Father of 4 daughters; stepfather to a son; grandfather to 14 and great-grandfather to one. Successful businessman, co-owner of Lock America International, friend and inspiration to so many. Along with his dear wife, Pensri – affectionately known to all of us as “Betty”, designer, builder and, along with a bank, owner of the beautiful home in La Cresta. I will try to add a little info so you will know and appreciate him even better.

We come from very humble, Sicilian and Calabrese South Italian beginnings. Assumedly and consequently, we Minnella-Romanos have Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Norman, French, Spanish, North African and likely many other bloods in our veins, genes and personalities.

Like our father, Frank was very proud of the fact that he was a self-made man who made it using his own wit, talents, ingenuity and resources. Pop was a small business owner most of his adult life; Mom a housewife until we got older and then she worked with Pop in the family store. Other than a stable family of traditional values – dinner together at 7 nightly, always enough food and clothing, church on Sunday, strong work ethic, the pressure to be educated, a macaroni dish at EVERY meal, pride in our ethnic background, strong bonds with extended our family – there was no financial cushion for us. As infants and toddlers, we were known as Butch, me, and Spike, Frank. Neither Frank, Tom, nor I picked up or had any interest then in any of the colloquial Italian (really Sicilian or Calabrese) we heard around and available to us from our parents, family and community.

Despite our humble beginnings, Mom and Dad somehow found the money to purchase a television – the first in the block – and so we were the popular and only kindergarteners and first graders who had all the neighbor kids over every afternoon after school to watch the Hoody-Doody Show with Uncle Bob & Clarabell, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger & Tonto, & Flash Gordon. That was about the time when Frank began exhibiting his adolescent driving abilities, secretly and carefully rolling Pop’s car down a slight hill behind our house. He paid a heavy price for that when Pop found out!

It was also about that time, he 5, me 6, that I introduced him to the fairer sex by fixing him up with a little girlfriend neighbor about the same age. That did not work out.

We had no money for summer camp but we worked at the Herald Tribune Fresh Air Fund Camp in New York State the summers of high school, Frank in the camp Mess Hall/kitchen and hanging with the more questionable teen staff during his free time.

Frank was always a driven child. He had little time to waste, in high school, threatening to drop out and go to work to Mom’s constant horror. Like Pop, he was something of a financial genius who had great ambition, talent and determination just waiting to be released. Despite his financial dreams, he did find some time to become a determined and talented celloist in the high school orchestra and later the West Caldwell Community Orchestra. He did finish high school and began working at the Meyer Bros. Department Store in Paterson, NJ stocking and decorating street level windows and eventually becoming a kind of part-time personal assistant to the owner, Mr. Meyer, running errands for him.

From Meyer Bros., Frank moved on to working for Hoffman-LaRoche Pharmaceuticals and eventually to Frito-Lay as a driver/salesman with a route that covered the very tough Newark area. There were racial riots there in those days but Frank did not let that stop him. Sales was where Frank could show his determination and ability and that’s exactly what he did. He became a top salesman at Frito-Lay quickly, always talking about how he could increase sales and doing so.

He married Marilyn Marinos, moved into an apartment in Woodbridge, NJ, and fathered my Goddaughter, Michelle, From there he joined Abloy, a Finnish company, selling locks but travelling way too much.
That marriage did not last.

Much to Mom’s horror, Frank acquired a motorcycle and got an apartment. He helped Mom and Dad with their prime meat/ delicatessen/Italian specialties grocery, learning how to cut meat and make Italian sausage, skills he used to his last days. To his end, he took great pride in his homemade Italian sausage, meat sauce and macaroni dishes. He also helped me bartend at Vat 69, then a very popular nightclub in North Bergen.

He soon met and married Ann, fathered Karina and Lindsay and Miranda, and settled down in the Pine Barrens of South-Central NJ. Determined to be completely independent, they bought a small rather primitive farm in the boonies of northeast Pennsylvania. When I say boonies, I mean really the boonies! Still working for Abloy, he soon saw the opportunity to better sell cheese modestly homemade by his Amish neighbors and soon he was hawking that cheese as well as security locks everywhere!

Frank finally abandoned the boonies and moved the family to Vista, CA but still did too much travelling on business which led to the demise of marriage #2. By then, both of us single, we spent many many nights dancing at LA, Orange, Riverside & San Bernardino county nightclubs. It was about that time he met and fell for a little green female, Patty Padlock, his lifelong untamed parrot companion. He also met 2 Chinese fellows from Taiwan, one Steve Shiao with us now, who were just starting a lock assembly & sales business from a garage. Baton Locks was born. Soon, Steve and Frank broke off from their partner, Peace, and formed and developed today’s Lock America.

On one of those nights of nightclubbing, Frank & I visited the now non-existent Jolly Roger Club at Katella and Harbor in Anaheim. Among the many very excellent ladies there were a small group of Asian ones and Frank made his move on innocent Thai beauty, Pensri Chotchop, mother of one Watson Visuwan and owner of a local clothing assembly business. Soon they married in Las Vegas, bought a beautiful home in Fountain Valley, and grew a modest vending machine manufacturing business along side the growing and now established Lock America. Frank and Betty bought an undeveloped lot of 7 acres in La Cresta and designed and built the Tuscan beauty where he spent his retired years almost always with a glass of his beloved red wine in his hand.

Frank became a world traveler. He had spent a short time with the family in Canada as a pre-teen and as an Abloy salesman he knew most of the USA but as a Lock America owner he now added Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and China. I think he also went to Argentina. Nigeria, Sicily, Calabria and Nicaragua were on our bucket list to visit together. He had friends everywhere and the respect of his business competitors, at least those who were themselves ethical.

During all of those years, Frank managed to overcome many serious bouts of illness. He almost died in a Chinese clinic erroneously called a hospital. There were his struggles with cancer and other problems.

I must say though he was always a fighter, optimistic and thinking of new challenges. He was a man of strong business ethics and a committed capitalist. I will always remember his profound sadness and disappointment with a trusted employee who defrauded he and Steve. He loved to argue, especially about politics. In his younger years, he could really get into a rage! He always enjoyed being outrageous, opinionated. He was fearless! Like the true Sicilian he was, his memory was sharp, permanent and reliable.

To all these talents and skills developed over the years must be added to his resume his most recent achievement earned just a few months ago in Wyoming: buffalo fighter!

In his final years, he became increasingly sentimental, tolerant, warm, loving and generous. It is hard to believe he was with us less than a month ago but is no longer.

Mom and Dad are proud of you Frank and we all respect and appreciate the legacy of family and memories you left us.

Some friends sent me a sympathy card with words so fitting: “As some people journey through life, they leave footprints of kindness and love, courage and compassion, joy and faith. Even when they are gone, the trail they have left behind continues to inspire us.”

Rest in peace, brother. I hope and pray I see you again very soon and we can all be together for eternity.

Your loving brother, John.