The sleepy little mountain village of San Pietro in Amantea perches on the roof of Calabria, a colorful region of Southern Italy, albeit still waiting to this very day in most places for posterity to arrive.  San Pietro is the childhood home of a similarly colorful longtime San Antonio resident, Gino Cosmo Guido.  At age 93 our beloved Gino quietly passed into the hands of the Lord on December 27, 2020, joining his life-mate Madeleine Fiaud Guido in Heaven.  Madeleine was a painter, Gino bought her his color.

Gino, known as "Bapu" to his children, Frank, Marisa, and Gino Jr, seven grandchildren, and two great grandkids, was a dynamo of energy throughout his life, master of endless joke telling to all within his orbit, and could literally fix anything….restoring nonfunctional grandfather clocks, rehabbing gasoline engines for mini-bikes and kit cars our family enjoyed driving over many years, building homes, and growing tomato plants.  Gino "fixed" his tomato plants with adorning red ball Christmas ornaments; thereby frustrating marauding birds with these "hard-peck simulated tomatoes."  Gino's successful genius here was to divert avian squadrons otherwise intent on spoiling generation of his favorite homemade pasta sauce.

Like his father Frank, and many other close relatives, Gino immigrated from Italy to San Antonio.  He arrived here in 1946 at age 18 to pursue the American Dream.  Gino was on the first ship of immigrants from Italy after World War II.  Family members already in San Antonio drove to pick him up at New York City harbor.  Gino reportedly came down the gangway singing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" hailing with bravado to all the only English he knew at the time.

Upon arriving in San Antonio, Gino went to work at Guido Brothers Construction, the family business.  He learned his way up from the ground floor of construction.  He began as a laborer rising over time to help found and run the wholesale building materials arm of the family business.  This would be Gino's passion throughout his work life…ably helping San Antonio grow and build its communities.

Gino enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1950 to help fight the Korean War.  The Air Force in its wisdom sent him "to the Korean War French theatre-of-operations" Gino always said with a wink and a smile.  While serving in France, Gino met and ultimately married his wife of over 50 years Madeleine.  They married in 1954 with Gino finishing his military service that same year.

Resuming civilian life, Gino helped his family further grow its wholesale building materials business, as well as prosper San Antonio over the ensuing decades.  He served on the board of directors of Commercial National Bank from 1961-1964 and The San Antonio Builders Association spanning two decades starting in 1961.  In 1971, Gino started his own wholesale building materials business, Gino Guido, Inc., thereby fulfilling his personal American Dream of business ownership.  Leading by example, Gino gave the gift of entrepreneurship, respect for hard work, and penchant towards ingenuity to his family's future generations, spawning family endeavors into medicine, engineering, military service and aviation.

Gino was a Great American, patriot, and family man who will be missed.

Graveside services with military honors will be held for the immediately family in early January.

As a choice in lieu of sending flowers, please consider making a donation to the Alzheimer's Association, www.alz.org to help address a malady that took Gino's beloved wife Madeleine from him all too early in 2004.