Donald James Martelli

Don was born in Tacoma, WA to Alex & Jean Martelli who were Italian immigrants.  He was very big on Italian traditions & family.  Don grew up in Tacoma playing many sports through the years.  Schools attended were Visitation, Holy Rosary & Bellarmine where he graduated in 1951.  He played sports at each of these schools.

He went on to attend UPS for Teacher Studies, playing sports also.  He met & married his loving wife Meryle in 1953, then joined the Army & spent 2 years in Korea.  After returning home he again attended UPS & received his Teaching degree.  Then he went to UW Seattle & received his Masters of Science Degree in Physical Education in 1971 and taught mostly PE classes.

He taught at 6 Tacoma schools in his career mostly at Mason Jr High & finishing at St Charles Borromeo.  He was a big sports enthusiast and loved to play, teach, watch & talk about sports.  He was a wonderful coach of baseball, football, and gymnastics.  He loved teaching & working with kids.  His slow pitch baseball team was inducted into the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.  He was an avid Bocce player whose team won many tournaments through the years.

Don was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather & uncle.

He was an active member of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Amvets Post 5, Sons of Italy and Christopher Columbus Society.

Don was preceded in death by his daughter Lauri Waterman 2004, his sister Virginia Moceri 2013, his wife of over 62 years Meryle (Hamilton) Martelli 2016 & his niece Paula Burris 2022.

He is survived by his son Don Martelli (Jann), daughters Lynette Richardson (Allen), Dina Keyt (Tom), 10 grandkids, 3 great grandkids, 5 nieces.

Funeral Mass & celebration of life Wednesday 11:00 am December 11, 2024 at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church.  Funeral will be live streamed on the Churches Facebook page.  Rosary will be recited Tuesday 6:00 pm December 10, 2024 at Gaffney Funeral Home Chapel.