Guy Mastrangel: A Tribute
Updated: Jan 11, 2021
Farmbrook Road is really the origins of the Farmbrook Free Press, and this road is something of a world in itself, it is magical, and it is so amazing. This place is like the countryside, and is where this Magazine started. This road had key figures, and long time faces, just like so many others do, and we are sad to say that one of Farmbrook Road's Forefathers, and a reader of the FFP, Guy Mastrangel, has passed away at the age of 95.
Our Video Tribute To Guy: https://youtu.be/0V8t_WGo1js
Early Life (1925-1945)
Guy was born in 1925, to two Italian Immigrant Parents, Geatono Mastrangeli, and Anna Mastrangeli (Nee Pagano) who settled in Detroit. Following his birth arrived his two siblings, sisters, Cecilia and Bernice. The family eventually moved from the home that they built due to Geatono losing his job at Ford, due to the Great Depression. They moved from relative to relative, until finally settling in a new area of Detroit in the 1930s. Guy continued to live in Detroit, and went on to attend Cass Tech High School, Detroit which is still functioning today. There he met his future wife of 64 Years, Lucille Vera Neetz. He eventually proposed to her in 1945, and she gladly accepted. Following the momentous occasion of his engagement, he entered the Army Air Corps, something he had wanted to do ever since the war started. He was married at Madonna Church in Detroit before being given his first post.
1946-1994
Guy and his Wife went to Randolph Air Force Base, where he trained, and served in the Air Force, and earned the rank of Second Lieutenant USAF, and he was Honorably Discharged and returned to Detroit in the late 1940s. And after staying with his Wife’s parents in Detroit for a year, he got a job in Construction, and he eventually bought a small shack on a 3 Acre Woodland lot, which he tore down and built a new home on, and added additions to over the years. There he would go onto to have thirteen children. He greatly enjoyed life in his new home, where he built a 1 acre garden, kept chickens, and often participated in sport. He and his wife also later bought a cottage just north of the House, in the Northernmost parts of Oakland County, Michigan, on Oxbough Lake. He would go on to leave his job and started his own company called Installation Mechanics, which thrived under his care. He became an avid hunter, and he kept a hunting dog until the 1990s, and it would one of his all time favorite pass times.
Farmbrook Road
Courtesy of Google Earth
Later Life (1995-2020)
In the year 1995, after years of working and caring for his area and home, he sold his house on Farmbrook to his son and bought a small house in Florida for he and his wife, where they remained. They returned to their home state, and moved into their final home, at the Inn At Cass Lake, in Waterford, Oakland County, Michigan. His wife became sick in 2009, and passed away December 6, 2009 in hospital, and a heart broken Guy moved to a smaller one One Bedroom apartment. In his later years he was frequently visited by family, and made many friends at his home, all of whom miss him very much. In these later years he enjoyed life with friends and family. In 2015, he turned 90, and on June 12, 2020, he turned 95, while living in quarantine. In 2020, he also became a reader of this magazine and was one of the original supporters, starting in April. In Late November 2020, he was hospitalized with suspected internal bleeding problems, and on December 2, he entered hospice care, and after being visited by all his family, he passed away peacefully, surrounded by those who loved him.
He has been one of the greatest and original supporters of the Farmbrook Free Press, and enjoyed his paper an online installments whenever he received them, so we would like just say thank you to Guy Mastrangel and all he did, and we at the FFP wish his entire family our condolences.
We would like to also say that we were so lucky to talk to and write articles with Guy, who has always been amazing and helpful by providing amazing and entertaining articles, all based on his long and amazing life. We send all our love to Guy!
Photograph of Guy and His Wife Circa. 1945
Our Video Tribute To Guy: https://youtu.be/0V8t_WGo1js