This is a ceremony to celebrate the life of Reverend Dr. Carl Duane Onofrio (my father).
Expect to gather between 1:30-2 pm
2 pm: there will be a ceremony, including hymns, scripture and some speaking from people who knew him well, and perhaps even dancing.
After the ceremony, there will be refreshments and fellowship time.
Obituary
Reverend Dr. Carl Duane Onofrio (May 16, 1941- November 3, 2025)
With his bags packed and long ready, Carl Duane Onofrio returned to God on the morning of all souls’ day (Nov. 3rd) 2025. Carl lived a varied and steady life, he was husband to Joan for sixty years, father of 4 children (Andrea, Patricia, Rafael, Carl David), and a grandpa (Shawnee, Arjuna, Arwen, Ezekiel, Elijah).
As a Lutheran minister/chaplain, he served in campus ministry and at parishes across the US and Canada, as well as time in England and Jerusalem. He was passionate about education, proud to hold six University degrees, a contributing author to magazines, and the writer of hundreds of sermons that he kept in a box labelled “God".
He kept a close record of all the books that he ever read. The list dated back to the nineteen sixties and numbered in the thousands; humorist Mark Twain was a favourite. As a book collector, he was known to shop at thrift stores and libraries and to bring boxes of books with him for sales at the North Tonawanda history museum or a theological retreat. He instilled a value of critical thinking into his children, sometimes, by slapping his own forehead and giving the imperative “think!”
He was a letterman tennis player at Hartwick College, completed a half marathon and could regularly be seen, in short shorts, jogging, biking or, in his later days, walking. He provided compassionate care for the ill and dying and was generous in giving to charities and the causes he supported. He initially moved his family from the US to Canada as a conscientious objector, to protest the taxes that supported the Vietnam war.
He danced to rock and roll, told jokes at faith events and sang hymns like a proud Lutheran.
In his late years he was afflicted by Alzheimer’s. We are thankful that he responded to the condition with grace, even living into his name, Onofrio, meaning “always glad”. He smiled, he sang and he danced. He settled in Niagara, Ontario where he died at 84 years old in care, across the river from where he was born, in Western New York.
As a man, he always walked with a certain ease, may he be at peace with his creator now and forever. Amen.
Cremation has taken place.
CELEBRATION OF LIFE
WHEN: DECEMBER 27, 2025
WHERE: LUTHERAN CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, 3900 Dorchester Rd, Niagara Falls, ON L2J 4J1
TIME: 1.30pm
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