Riccardo Bertoia and Mary Casorso

Riccardo Bertoia and Mary Casorso

Riccardo (Dick) Bertoia was the first child of Guilio Bertoia, a marble worker, and Ida Della Schiava.  He was born on November 29, 1906 in Arzene, Pordenone, Friuli (fifty miles northeast of Venice). Giulio made two trips to Canada.  He worked at a brewery in Fernie, BC, from 1908-1910.  His second trip was in 1914, to work on a farm in Bowmanville, Ontario.  Guilio returned to Italy, as his wife would not move to Canada.

Dick arrived in Halifax on March 21, 1924.  He made his way to Cranbrook, BC, and soon got a job as a handyman at a logging camp.  Over the next few years, Dick did a variety of jobs in Cranbrook, Kimberley, Lumberton and Wasa, at a hospital kitchen, a logging camp, a sawmill and a railway camp.  From 1927-1931, Dick worked on Sandy Gordon’s farm and in packing houses in Kelowna, made railway ties in Lumby, and loaded paper in Powell River.  A move in 1933, made Dick a ‘Watkins Man’, selling products door to door in Nelson, BC.

Mary Casorso was born on February 20, 1909 in Kelowna, BC, the oldest child of Louis Casorso and Caterina Dapavo. Kelowna born Louis, was both a farmer and a rancher.  Mary attended St Ann’s Convent in Victoria from the ages of twelve to sixteen.  When she was sixteen, the housekeeper died, so Mary had to go home to cook for the ranch-hands and be like a mother to her two brothers.  Mary met Dick in 1928, at a play in the Old Mission School.  They were married in Kelowna on April 26, 1934. Dick worked at the Cominco lead refinery plant from 1935, until his retirement in 1971.  They lived in both Trail, BC, and Rossland, BC, before building their Kelowna home in 1976.

Dick was very active in First Aid, from the old Air Raid Patrol Days (during World War II) to winning a team competition in 1960.  He was also a volunteer ambulance driver from 1961 to 1978.  Dick also helped with Meals on Wheels, the Knights of Columbus, the Eagles Lodge and the local Credit Union.  In between raising a family and going fishing with Mary, he still found time to make wine, to play crib, to travel, to read and his favourite - to talk to people.

Mary and Dick had six children: Edna (Jim Carfrae), Helen (Jack Duck), Beverly (Allan Anderson) Donald (Sandy Osborne), Robert (Carole Marsh), and Jeannine (Wolf Behrenbruch). Mary died in 1984, and Dick in 1995.  They are at rest in the Immaculate Conception Church Cemetery in Kelowna.
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Jim Carfrae, Senior