Agastino Pietro 'Gus' Coldebella Beloved husband, father, brother, and grandfather, 89 Mr. Agastino Pietro "Gus" Coldebella, 89, of Nutley, N.J., passed away on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016, at Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, N.J. The funeral will be conducted at the Biondi Funeral Home of Nutley, 540 Franklin Ave., Nutley, on Friday, Dec. 9, at 8:45 a.m. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Nutley at 10 a.m. Entombment will be at Holy Cross Chapel Mausoleum in North Arlingon, N.J., with Naval military honors. Visitation will be on Thursday, Dec. 8, from 4 to 8 p.m. For directions or to send online condolences, please visit biondifuneralhome.com. Gus was born on Sept. 14, 1927, in Newark, N.J., the second of four children of Vittoria and John Coldebella, both formerly of San Donato di Limon, Italy. As a teenager, Gus fell in love with cars and how to fix them and got his first job as a mechanic at Barro's Service Station on Verona Ave. in Newark. After being honorably discharged from the Navy in 1947 (during which he witnessed the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946), Gus bought Barro's with his brother John, renaming it Coldebella Bros. Automotive. He ran the business until he retired in 2000. Aside from his work, one of his joys was making and keeping in touch with friends, old and new. After retiring from Coldebella Bros. he took a job as a toll collector on the Garden State Parkway, in large part to meet-and put a smile on the faces of-the folks he talked to every day. He took pride in helping others through his donations of platelets to the Blood Center of N.J., and received honors from that organization for his dedication. He was an avid fisherman and crabber, and love traveling with his wife and family. He was an active member for many years of the Eighth Ward Non-Partisan Club in Newark, and later of VFW Post 493 in Nutley, where he lost a small fortune playing cards. Gus Coldebella is survived by his beloved wife of 48 years, Filomena "Phyllis" Coldebella, whom he married on Sept. 22, 1968; his children, Gus Coldebella and his wife, Heather, of Dover, Mass., and Rosemary Coldebella and her partner, Michele Hannah of Winston-Salem, N.C.; his grandchildren, Tenley and Grace Coldebella; his sister, Ines Pagano of Cary, N.C., and his brother, John Coldebella of Sun City, Ariz. He was "Uncle Gus" to dozens of nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews, and godfather to dozens more. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to , P.O. Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, Tenn. 38101-9908, stjude.org, or to the Nutley Volunteer Emergency and Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 172, Nutley, N.J. 07110, nutleyrescue.org.