Domenic G. Pepe passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, September 5, 2024, at his home in downtown Los Angeles, California.  He was eighty years old. He was the son of Lucy (Ciccio) and Pasquale Pepe, the brother of Louise Litchfield and her husband Dana and the companion of Nancy Thao Lam.

Domenic graduated from Everett, Massachusetts, public schools where he was introduced to the world of science.   Upon graduation he went off to Lowell Technological Institute.  During the late 1960s and through the mid-seventies he lived in New York City going to graduate school at the Belfer Graduate School of Science at Yeshiva University, then to New York University and then on to work as an engineer.  New York City in the 1960s and 70s was an exciting time in the world of physics and mathematics with many of the top minds in those fields gathered there.

He returned to the Boston area and worked as a physicist/engineer in the aerospace industry and as a teacher at a college in Boston. During the 1980s he worked for a few years as the Chairman of the Everett Planning Board and with then-Mayor John McCarthy, successfully prevented a coal burning power plant from locating in Everett.  Even while living in California, he remained interested in the events and political life of his home city.

He was a quiet, soft-spoken intellectual person.  He found wonder and amazement in physics from the time he was a teenager throughout his life.  He read voraciously.  Besides keeping up to date with physics, he read books and articles about American and world history, and biographies of prominent historical figures as well as notable entrepreneurs of business.  He followed both local and world events.

Music was always a part of his life.  In his teens he attended the Boston Conservatory of Music on Saturday mornings where he studied the accordion.  In high school he and some friends put together a band and played at local dances and other venues.  He taught himself the guitar and could easily sit down at a piano and knock out a few tunes. He liked watching old movies - his favorites were Marty, It's a Wonderful Life, Dr. Zhivago, Fiddler on the Roof and A Man for All Seasons.

In his unassuming manner, Domenic was always ready to lend a hand to anyone, whether it be for a friend, relative, or a needy avian.

Domenic's interest in birds began as a child when he found a baby bird with a broken wing in the back yard.  He made a bed for the bird in the garage and fed and cared for the bird until its wing healed and it flew away. While in California during his retirement he would take a daily walk and at a particular place he would give the sparrows he met little pieces of bread.  For a couple of years, a family of ravens joined the afternoon get-togethers.  As he began to recognize the individual birds, they, in turn, grew to recognize him.  They would spot him as he was walking across the bridge and come to greet him. He had names for each of his winged friends.

His early interest in birds set him off on a lifetime of looking upward - from his birds, model airplanes, satellites, and space exploration he seemed to be always looking to the skies seeking knowledge.

In that vein, may we all take comfort in the Eskimo proverb, "Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy."  Eskimo Proverb

Domenic is interred in Glenwood Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.