Passings: Maurizio Bertoli
A set of dual tires broke off the rear axle of a southbound semi-trailer rig, according to Pennsylvania State Police investigators, and flew into oncoming northbound traffic on the freeway. One tire hit a vehicle and caused minor damage, but that same tire then struck the windshield of the Honda Odyssey that Bertoli was driving. He died at the scene.
Bertoli earned a reputation as an internationally recognized stone-care expert, often as the “answer man” for questions posed on Websites such as gardenweb.com and his own mbstone.com. He also formulated and sold his own line of stone-care products for the past 18 years.
Born in Italy, Bertoli began his career in the stone trade in 1959 as a 16-year-old taking a summer job at a marble fabricator in Parma, Italy. He worked for five years as a floor setter for a Parma marble-flooring company while completing his university education; he bought the company in 1969 and received his degree a year later.
Bertoli expanded the company during the next ten years, while also studying geology and chemistry as applied to natural stone. At the end of the 1970s, Bertoli sold his firm and moved to New Jersey, eventually forming his own business for marble-floor care. He began his own line of stone-care products in 1990; he also began speaking and writing on stone care for the industry.
Bertoli also expanded his educational efforts in the past 10 years, including the training of in-house maintenance crews at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. He also aided in founding the International Training Centers for the Stone Industry (ITCS) and began teaching classes at a facility in Folcroft, Pa. The next course would’ve started on Aug. 25.
He also offered his “Ask Maurizio” sessions on the Internet, taking questions from professionals and consumers on stone care. His last answer, on “cloudy Uba Tuba granite,” came on Aug. 11.
Survivors, in addition to his wife of 38 years, Laura, are two sons and daughters-in-law, Giorgio and Erica of Beechwood, N.J., and Giulio and Fabiola of Newark, N.J.; and one grandson, Andrew Bruno.
Services will be private. Arrangements are being handled by Jacqueline M. Ryan Home for Funerals in Keansburg.