A monument to perseverance

It was Tony Sciolto’s 100th birthday on Tuesday, but one would never know.

Sciolto approached the entrance to the visitor’s parking section at his business, A. Sciolto & Son, Inc., at 541 Dyer Ave., on his forklift. He still operates it, and he left the motor running, anxious to get back to work during his interview with the Herald. He said achievement and perseverance are essential to living a life as long as his.

“Stillwater stinks, running water is drinkable,” Sciolto said with a laugh. “That goes for life, too. I work, that’s my exercise. Lots of fruits and vegetables. I don't smoke, never became an alcoholic.”

Sciolto said he was thrown out of school when he was 16 and went to learn the trade of making monuments with his father. “You’re not going to amount to much,” he said he was told at a young age. He worked to prove those doubters wrong.

Shortly after his father passed away in 1952, he purchased a small lot of land on Dyer Avenue. More than 60 years later, A. Sciolto & Son is still thriving, its property strewn with headstones and statues waiting to be bought and used.

“Anything you’re doing, keep at it,” Sciolto said. “[My father] gave me good advice: Don’t listen to anybody, don’t pay attention to your competitors. Just run your own business. Be honest, fair and you’ll get ahead. The main thing is perseverance. If you keep trying to get ahead, you’ll make it.”

Sciolto said he always had the “tools” to be successful, but those weren’t the typical chisel or forklift. Two of the most essential partners of his life were his wife, Gertrude, and son, Tony. Gertrude passed away five years ago at 93, while Tony, who turns 70 later this year, represents the latter part of the business name. Tony, Sr., said his son is responsible for his “goodness and welfare.”

Tony, Jr. was in awe talking about his father, for whom he has worked for more than 50 years.

“It’s fantastic,” Tony, Jr., said of getting to work with his father for so long. “The guy moves, you know. He’s sharp. You ask him anything, like what’s going on in government, [or] locally, he's got the skinny. He’s polite. He’s ridiculous. I’m the most fortunate person on the face of the earth.”

Tony, Sr. said that Gertrude served in both the roles of a wife and of a mother. He lost his mother in 1918, when he was just 10 months old, and his stepmother was very hard on him growing up. (“She really didn’t like me, I don’t know what it was,” Tony, Sr. said)

Tony and Gertrude had three daughters and a son. He spoke of Gertrude fondly.

“I had the most wonderful person as far as I was concerned,” Tony, Sr. said of Gertrude. “If you have good kids and a good wife, you’ve got it made.”

Tony, Sr. also gets to keep a watchful eye on his business 24/7.

While he says the business has come a long way, he hasn’t had to travel a long way. He lives just across the street, with the No. 100 planted firmly in his front yard staring right at A. Sciolto and Son. Not only does he get to be his own security guard, but it’s a short walk to work every day.

“By living across the street and keeping my right eye on the business, nothing goes wrong,” Sciolto said. “I didn’t have to drive 20, 30 miles to work, which is very aggravating on 95. That takes a lot of stress off.”

His advice is simple: If there’s no passion behind one’s work, there’s no enjoyment.

It’s not a problem for Tony, Sr.

“If you don’t like what you’re doing, you’ll never be good at it,” he said.