Henry DeGiorgio, 88

Henry DeGiorgio, 88, of Mountain Home, died Dec. 1, 2004, at the Life Care Center of Boise.

Funeral mass was held Saturday, Dec. 4, at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church. Internment followed at Mountain View Cemetery. Arrangements were under the direction of Summers Funeral Homes, McMurtrey Chapel in Mountain Home.

The son of Austrian immigrants, dad's childhood was spent in many of the mining towns of western Wyoming and eastern Idaho. His family eventually settled in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, where he attended high school and met Mary Campbell, who was to become his beloved wife and lifelong friend.

An accomplished musician with a beautiful voice, he left Lava after graduation to join a traveling vaudeville show as the lead singer. Although he enjoyed telling stories of life on the vaudeville circuit, he'd often feign despair that the stories provided more entertainment for his kids than his singing had provided his audiences, his family noted, fondly.

After his time in the limelight, he moved to California to study accounting and to obtain medical treatment to regain at least partial use of a leg damaged by childhood polio.

His first priority, upon returning to Idaho, was to interrupt Miss Campbell during a local theater production and convince her to marry him.

That accomplished, he ignored the fact that the country was in the middle of the Great Depression and quickly secured a job, the first step in a long and successful career in city government, public housing, land development and mortgage lending.

In 1962 he brought the family to Mountain Home as the manager of the newly founded Northwest Savings and Loan. Several years later he moved on to become the manager of the Mountain Home branch of Home Federal Savings and Loan.

Widely respected for his contributions to the thrift industry, he was appointed to several professional association executive positions including a term as a national director of the United States Savings and Loan League.

Upon retirement from Home Federal, he worked as a real estate appraiser for several years until illness so limited his mobility that he could no long work.

Although grief stricken by the loss of his wife and brother and weakened by illness, he "maintained his ferocious love of life even to the night of his passing," his family said.

He is survived by: his daughter, Marilyn; a son, Jan; a sister, Mary, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Because of his lifelong commitment to helping families obtain housing that provided them dignity and hope, the family asks that memorial contributions be made in his name to Boise Valley Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, PO Box 6571, Boise, ID 83707.