June 28, 2022 (North Tonawanda, NY) ─ Moderation, prayer and “making the best of every situation” have carried Howard Biondi through more than a century of life. A resident of Wheatfield Commons, a DePaul Senior Living Community in North Tonawanda, Howard recently celebrated his 101^st birthday, one of his proudest accomplishments!

“I never wanted to brood over things,” he said in a Stories of Hope article published in the Buffalo News about Howard in 2021 when he turned 100. “You look for the good things. You don’t look for the bad things. Try to be happy, try to be good and don’t take advantage of people.”

Raised on the east side of Buffalo, Howard attended School No. 6 and Hutchinson Technical High School, dropping out of school as a junior to travel to California to fight forest fires with the Civilian Conservation Corps, later working in a butcher shop on South Division Street, the same street he grew up on.

In 1943, he was drafted into the Army during World War II. He served three years in New Guinea and the Philippines as a technician fourth grade, with the 496^th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion. After returning home, Biondi worked for A&P for 30 years as meat manager, cutting meat for a small shop after he retired. He also took up golf and served as president of Grover Cleveland Golf Course.

Howard’s wife Theresa Marinaccio, who he knew since they were children, passed away in 1984 from breast cancer. The couple had three children together. Howard refers to his home at Wheatfield Commons, a DePaul Senior Living Community in North Tonawanda, as “the country club” because they “cut no corners.”

For more information about Wheatfield Commons, please contact Administrator Kathy Hyland-Dion or Marketing Director John Tomes at (716) 475-7600. Kathy can also be reached at kdion@depaul.org and John can be reached at jtomes@depaul.org. Visit Wheatfield Commons on Facebook.