Max Peter Cologna
Longtime club member Max Peter Cologna passed away in Roseville, California on June 20, 2021 at the age of 88. Max’s parents were from Castelfondo in the Val di Non. They immigrated to Rock Springs, Wyoming, the destination of a multitude of Trentini. There Max was born. When Max was 10 the family settled in Ogden, Utah, the site of another large Trentina community. To this day both Rock Springs and Ogden have active Trentino clubs. Max was named after his father, Massimino Pietro Cologna (1892-1977), son of Giuseppe Cologna and Maria Marchetti. His mother, Pierina Casilda Ianes (1905-1999), was the daughter of Pietro Ianes and Carolina Lorenzetti. Max entered the army and was stationed at Ford Ord Military Base in Monterey. He fell in love with California and a woman of Calabrese origin, Jackie D’Andrea. They married and had 3 boys, Paul, Tom and Matt. Max ran a liquor store in San Francisco. The couple lived in San Mateo for 37 years and then moved to Roseville to be closer to family. Jackie passed away in 2019. They had been married over 60 years. Max was particularly close to Olga Disney and Rena (Prevedel) Rossotti, two others of Trentina origin, that had journeyed from Ogden to California. He loved to sprinkle conversations with a few phrases of Nones, the language of the Val di Non.
John Wood
John Wood (1941-2017) passed away at the age of 76. John was an active club member and very proud of his Trentino roots. His maternal grandparents were Giovanni Avanzini and Maria Zuech, both from Brez in the Val di Non. They immigrated to Rock Springs, Wyoming, the destination of many Trentini. They named their first child Americo, honoring the country of his birth. The family then moved to Goldfield, Nevada. Amerigo perished just before the age of 2 from cholera and is buried in the historic town cemetery. Four children followed, Mary, Elmo, Ruby and Juanita. Ruby was John’s mother. John’s Trentini grandparents owned the Lucky Strike Winery in Goldfield. This business was primarily a bar and liquor distributorship. The winery also hosted poker games and other types of gaming. They gained the right to distribute liquor from the outskirts of Reno all the way to Las Vegas. It was a very profitable business until Goldfield went into demise. The mines were producing less gold and silver. That was followed by a devasting flood in 1913, a fire a decade later and finally prohibition. The family then moved to Reno where they opened a small grocery store and hotel. John received an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Reno and an MBA from JFK University. He was active in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. After years with PGE, he retired in 2007. John was also a member of the Air Force Reserve. John loved a good polenta or canederli supper accompanied by red wine and capped off by a bit of grappa. He affectionally recalled how his grandmother Maria used the polenta stick as a threatening disciplinary tool. John leaves his loving wife of 54 years, Pat, plus three children, Michelle (Keith), Renee (Richard) and John Norman (Jeanette) and 3 grandchildren, Christopher and Nicholas Lam and John Austin Wood.
