February 23, 1922 — February 22, 2023
Anthony “Tony” Charles Romeo died peacefully at home with family on Feb. 22, 2023, the eve of his 101st birthday. Born in the Globeville neighborhood of Denver to Italian immigrant parents, Tony was the 10th of 11 children. His father, a former coal miner in Marshall, Colorado, opened a grocery and pool hall at 38th and Wynkoop streets, where the family lived until moving to east Denver.
Music was an important part of growing up in the Romeo family. Many of Tony’s siblings played professionally, and his love was the violin. He attended East High School, where he was the concertmaster of the school orchestra and won state and regional violin competitions in 1939, leading to a college scholarship. He began his college studies at the University of Northern Colorado and was the only one of his family to attend college.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor interrupted his second year of college in Greeley, and he enlisted in the Navy Air Corps. As a Navy pilot stationed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, he flew 48 long-range combat missions and logged 680 hours of flight time, becoming a lieutenant JG by war’s end. He flew a Privateer airplane, a converted B-24, over the South China Sea from Hainan Island to the southern tip of Japan.
After the war, Tony attended the University of Denver, earning a bachelor’s degree in airline and airport management in 1947. He went on to earn a master’s degree in violin performance from the Lamont School of Music in 1948. While pursuing his Ph.D. in music composition, he served on the Denver University faculty, played in the Denver Symphony, gave private violin lessons and worked as a flight instructor at several Denver area airports.
The postwar demand for commercial pilots led Tony to a career with United Airlines, where he met his future wife, Patricia (Patty), who was a stewardess for United. They married in 1952 and had four children. The family moved from Denver to Boston to Chicago and back to Colorado in 1967, settling in Boulder. In 1982 Tony retired from United.
In retirement, Tony and Patty opened a bed and breakfast, the Romeo Inn, in Ashland, where they lived for 23 years. They moved back to Denver, pursuing an active lifestyle involving family, tennis, cycling, bridge and volunteer work. They were both very active at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum and in Denver’s Lowry community. Tony and Patty bicycled around the United States and Europe, making many lifelong friends along the way.
Tony was predeceased by his eldest daughter, Gina-Marie Purdy. He is survived by Patty, his wife of 70 years; his three children, Jeffrey (Betsy), Julia Haen (Tim) and Chandler (Reed Weimer); 10 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Family and friends will celebrate his extraordinary life at a memorial event Saturday, June 24, at 2 p.m. at the Foss Auditorium, American Mountaineering Center, 710 10th St., Golden, Colorado. In his honor, donations may be made to Lutheran Collier Hospice or the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
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