Joseph Fatalo, executive at Suffolk Downs; at 66

JOSEPH FATALO

Joseph Fatalo, vice president of operations at Suffolk Downs, died Sunday of melanoma at his home in Manchester-by-the-Sea. He was 66.

Mr. Fatalo, originally from East Boston, began working at the track in 1965, following in the footsteps of his father, Americo, who worked as a parimutuel clerk from the 1930s until he retired.

Mr. Fatalo started as a parimutuel teller, rising in the mid-1980s to business manager of the teller's labor union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 123.

His family and colleagues at Suffolk Downs said Mr. Fatalo worked tirelessly on behalf of the hundreds of union members. When the track closed amid financial troubles in 1989 and new operators showed interest in reopening, Mr. Fatalo pushed get the workers reinstated.

"When it closed, he never got another job," said his daughter, Joanna O'Neill of Kailua, Hawaii. "He was up with the governor and Legislature working, working, working to get their jobs back."

When the track reopened in 1992, everyone was offered their jobs, largely because of Mr. Fatalo's dedication, colleagues said. They included the food service employees who had previously been represented by another union.

"I knew that as long as that building was standing we'd come back," Mr. Fatalo told the Globe at the time. "But under what circumstance, I didn't know. We had unity. Our members stuck together."

Alan Shapiro, a longtime friend of Mr. Fatalo's and a lawyer from the firm that represents the union, said Mr. Fatalo cared deeply about the Suffolk workforce.

"He was dogged in his determination both to get the workers to get their jobs back and to try to make the jobs as decent as he could with wages and benefits," Shapiro said.

Mr. Fatalo became assistant general manager in 1998. Last year, he was named vice president of operations.

"He was a great mentor and a great teacher; he will be sorely missed," said James Alcott, director of pari-mutuel operations at Suffolk Downs and friend of Mr. Fatalo's for the past 17 years.

When Mr. Fatalo was not working, he enjoyed walking, jogging, and playing chess online with people from around the world, his family said. A resident of Manchester for more than 30 years, he knew from a young age that's where he wanted to live and worked to fulfill that dream.

Mr. Fatalo had a soft spot for animals and enjoyed watching the bird feeders in the morning with Lynda, his wife of 43 years.

Mr. Fatalo graduated from Boston College High School.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Fatalo leaves two other daughters, Catherine Glass of Manchester and Leslie Pappas of Hamilton and five grandchildren

A funeral Mass will be said tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church in Manchester.