Monday, February 3, 1997
Longtime cobbler reflects soul of Breckenridge
By ROY A. JONES II / Senior Staff Writer
BRECKENRIDGE - No matter how you spell it, Frank Pellizzari
Jr. has been the heart and "sole" of Breckenridge for
more than 60 years.
Not only did the friendly shoemaker repair boots and shoes
for six decades, he's made enriching the soul of the community
his personal mission - serving in volunteer positions a combined
total of more than 220 years.
That includes more than 60 years of Boy Scouting, during which
he has produced more Eagle Scouts than any other scoutmaster in
America. He's been director of the Stephens County chapter of
the American Red Cross since 1949, a Rotary Club member since
1955 and a member of the Community Action Program since 1968.
In his church, Sacred Heart Catholic, he's presided over the
Holy Name Society and Men's Club and has been an usher and collected
the offering since 1955.
The unassuming cobbler has filled several boxes with the awards
he's won over the years, including Breckenridge's Man of the Year
in 1971 and the Masonic Lodge's Community Builder Award for 1996.
But the most prominent place in his shoe shop was reserved for
recognition of the Boy Scouts who attained the rank of Eagle,
the organization's highest rank, under his tutelage.
"It started out with one plaque that we added a little
engraved nameplate to each time another boy made Eagle, but we
eventually had to get another plaque, then a third," he said
proudly. "It was getting so heavy we had to reinforce the
wall!"
Two strokes, surgery on one hand and one leg, and the diagnosis
of lung cancer forced Pellizzari to close his shoe shop last September,
bringing an end to the downtown business that had been started
by his father, Frank Sr., in 1918.
But waning health has not dimmed his love for Breckenridge.
A Tuesday interview had to be postponed until he finished helping
his wife, Jeanette, deliver meals for Meals on Wheels.
Pellizzari turned 76 in December, and one of his dreams, according
to daughter Jean Ann Credicott, has been to see his number of
Eagle Scouts equal his age. That will finally happen, with one
"to grow on," next Wednesday when Stuart Burt, Nicholas
McClymond and Brad Starnes become the 75th, 76th and 77th members
of Troop 63 to make Eagle under Pellizzari's guidance.
"I'm really proud for the boys, for all my boys,"
Pellizzari said modestly. "That's quite an accomplishment
for a young man."
Pellizzari's former Eagles are now professionals and civic
leaders in several states. They include W.G. (Bud) Arnot III,
chief justice of the 11th Court of Appeals at Eastland; Scott
Dueser, president of Abilene's First National Bank; Bill Whitman,
a hospital group president in Fort Worth, and literally dozens
of Stephens County civic leaders. There's even two generations:
Randy Black in 1965 and son, Beau Black, in 1988.
"If Norman Rockwell painted the ideal scoutmaster, Frank
Pellizzari would be his model. He meant that much to me and still
does," said Arnot, who at age 13 became the youngest Eagle
Scout in the nation in 1964.
The following year Pellizzari's troop set another national
record by having 10 new Eagle Scouts promoted at the same Court
of Honor.
Arnot recalls how Pellizzari stressed faith in God and went
to great lengths "to eat only fish on Fridays when we were
camping out."
On trips, scouts also went to Mass with Pellizzari, "no
matter what our religion," said Arnot, a Baptist deacon whose
grandfather was president of Hardin-Simmons University.
"I was very, very fortunate to grow up in Breckenridge
and have a role model like Frank Pellizzari," Arnot said.
Pellizzari is a native of Italy, although he jokes that he
was conceived in Breckenridge even though he didn't see the town,
or his father, until he was five.
He explained that when his immigrant mother was pregnant with
him she returned to Italy for a visit. Unfortunately, Benito Mussolini
came into power while she was there, and she was not allowed to
leave the country until 1923.
He spent the days at his father's shoe shop until he started
to school, learning English from talking to customers "and
going to the movies," he said. He credits Boy Scouts with
helping him learn as much as school.
"I really didn't know my ABCs until the scoutmaster made
me say them when I was learning Morse code," he said. He
attended the first National Boy Scout Jamboree in Washington,
D.C., in 1937, and became an Eagle Scout the following year.
He served four years in the Army Air Corps during World War
II but never made it to Italy. He returned to work in his father's
shoe shop in 1947 and earned a reputation as one of the best cobblers
and bootmakers around.
"I always said my calling in life was to save man's sole,"
he joked.
"A boot I used to make by hand for $25, you couldn't make
for $400 now," he said, shaking his head.
Once when an oilman's daughter bought shoes for her bridesmaids
at Neiman Marcus in Dallas and asked to have them dyed another
color, the salesman asked her, "Why here? You have the best
dye man in the business in Breckenridge," Mrs. Pellizzari
said.
Pellizzari's shoe shop may be missing from the downtown building
it occupied for 60 years, but a cabinet he used for dyeing, a
shoelace case (when shoelaces were a nickel) and several hand
tools first used by his father have been donated to the Swenson
Memorial Museum.
Only last week, the Grand Lodge of Texas presented Pellizzari
with its Community Builders Award for Outstanding Citizen for
1996. In 1988 he received a national "For Kids' Sake"
award in Washington, D.C.
Blessed with the ability to joke about anything, Pellizzari
says of his cancer, which after radiation treatment is in remission:
"I'm luckier than most people. I know what I'm gonna' die
of."
Sons Frank III "Trey" and John made Eagle Scout in
1971 and 1974, respectively, and both are now DPS troopers. The
Pellizzaris also have another daughter, Paula Kay.
(Breckenridge correspondent Julie Fore contributed to this
story.)
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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