Michael A. Barruzza
Bensalem, PA PCS member Michael A. Barruzza lost his three-week battle with COVID and left us far too early at the age of 72 on April 12th, 2021, kindred fans of Cadillac’s professional and passenger cars masked up and turned out in tremendous force for his April 21st funeral at the Galzerano Funeral Home in Bristol, PA to comfort his wife Victoria, daughters Diane McCarthy and Nikki Thompson, stepsons David and Ian Kennedy, their respective spouses, nine grandchildren and myriad community friends Mike had made as a 41-year Bristol Borough resident and a Pennsbury School District bus driver for 34 years. A large demonstration of affection from vintage auto enthusiasts was inevitable given Mike’s gentlemanly amiability and sterling service as National PCS President from 1995-7, Past President of the Cadillac & LaSalle Club’s Valley Forge Region and a peerless PCS/CLC liaison who spearheaded the 1999 creation of the Cadillac & LaSalle Club Award he would spend two subsequent decades proudly presenting to the highest scoring Cadillac or LaSalle-based pro-car at our annual PCS International Meets.
As Mike’s own Cadillac collection totals 21(!) cars according to the CLC’s 2021 International Membership Directory (the current PCS Registry corroborates eight are funeral vehicles, limousines or ambulances), it was no surprise to find several of them assembled in tribute outside Galzerano’s Radcliffe Street chapel by the time Deacon Edward J. Dymek of St. Ephrem Parish in Bensalem began the Pandemic-abridged 10-minute Catholic service at 10 am. Closest to the front steps was the Presidentially-tall 1996 S&S Commercial Glass Fleetwood Six-Door Limousine Mike acquired from Indianapolis PCS member Larry Wilson several years ago, followed next in line by the misty blue 1966 Coupe de Ville his son-in-law John McCarthy would be driving in the procession while other family members helmed his burgundy 1995 Cadillac Fleetwood and gray-green 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS sedans.
Bristol, PA PCS member Michael Hysek’s contribution to Mike’s funeral procession was a 1974 Cotner/Bevington Oldsmobile high-top “AMBULANCIA” that might have served in Mexico prior to its on-line purchase out of San Diego on September 19th, 2019, while PCS people seen in Bristol without pro-cars included Jeff and Mary Hookway of the club’s Lafayette, NJ membership office; Allentown newlyweds Nicos and Genny Elias (who recently acquired, it’s worth noting, a 1965 Superior flower car in Lititz, PA); Wilkes-Barre funeral director Ted Collins; and Your Warwick, NY-based Correspondent Gregg D. Merksamer. The Mohnton Professional Car Club (named for a Berks County, PA town that’s south-and-west of Reading) was equally well represented between the 1966 Superior Royale 3-way Landaulet Hearse Jason Fink drove 100 miles east from the Susquehanna River town of Wrightsville, PA and Gerald Carroll’s sharp black 1969 Superior Crown Sovereign Landaulet Hearse/Ambulance Combination from Newcastle, Delaware. Gerald recalled gratefully that Mike had been his source for hard-to-find interior components like the jump seats and reversible casket rollers, detailing “these came out of a 1968 Superior Limousine Combination Mike bought solely for the glass.”
The honor of bearing Mike’s flag-draped West Point 20-gauge steel casket to Washington Crossing National Cemetery (The Nation’s reward for his U.S. Navy service during the Vietnam War) would fall to his 1974 Superior Cadillac flower car, which was one of only 13 so-bodied out of the 1,000 Commercial Chassis Cadillacs shipped to Superior’s Lima, OH plant that model year. Actually, placing flowers on its stainless steel deck wasn’t possible, sadly, as the procession would have to use Interstates 95 and 295 in order to make a strictly-scheduled 11:15 am interment service made extra-memorable by the white dove that wandered around the wheels of the casket’s Art Deco style Aeon Model PBCC church truck and Gary A. Guth’s bagpipe rendition of “Anchors Aweigh.” Pre-committal Mike’s stepson Ian Kennedy detailed Mike’s first choice for his last ride was actually his baby blue metallic 1963 S&S Cadillac Park Row Combination Coach “but the master cylinder was leaking. That was THE ONE he wanted but trying to get parts for that thing is impossible, man!”
Written by PCS PUBLICITY & MEDIA RELATIONS CHAIR GREGG D. MERKSAMER
As Mike’s own Cadillac collection totals 21(!) cars according to the CLC’s 2021 International Membership Directory (the current PCS Registry corroborates eight are funeral vehicles, limousines or ambulances), it was no surprise to find several of them assembled in tribute outside Galzerano’s Radcliffe Street chapel by the time Deacon Edward J. Dymek of St. Ephrem Parish in Bensalem began the Pandemic-abridged 10-minute Catholic service at 10 am. Closest to the front steps was the Presidentially-tall 1996 S&S Commercial Glass Fleetwood Six-Door Limousine Mike acquired from Indianapolis PCS member Larry Wilson several years ago, followed next in line by the misty blue 1966 Coupe de Ville his son-in-law John McCarthy would be driving in the procession while other family members helmed his burgundy 1995 Cadillac Fleetwood and gray-green 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS sedans.
Bristol, PA PCS member Michael Hysek’s contribution to Mike’s funeral procession was a 1974 Cotner/Bevington Oldsmobile high-top “AMBULANCIA” that might have served in Mexico prior to its on-line purchase out of San Diego on September 19th, 2019, while PCS people seen in Bristol without pro-cars included Jeff and Mary Hookway of the club’s Lafayette, NJ membership office; Allentown newlyweds Nicos and Genny Elias (who recently acquired, it’s worth noting, a 1965 Superior flower car in Lititz, PA); Wilkes-Barre funeral director Ted Collins; and Your Warwick, NY-based Correspondent Gregg D. Merksamer. The Mohnton Professional Car Club (named for a Berks County, PA town that’s south-and-west of Reading) was equally well represented between the 1966 Superior Royale 3-way Landaulet Hearse Jason Fink drove 100 miles east from the Susquehanna River town of Wrightsville, PA and Gerald Carroll’s sharp black 1969 Superior Crown Sovereign Landaulet Hearse/Ambulance Combination from Newcastle, Delaware. Gerald recalled gratefully that Mike had been his source for hard-to-find interior components like the jump seats and reversible casket rollers, detailing “these came out of a 1968 Superior Limousine Combination Mike bought solely for the glass.”
The honor of bearing Mike’s flag-draped West Point 20-gauge steel casket to Washington Crossing National Cemetery (The Nation’s reward for his U.S. Navy service during the Vietnam War) would fall to his 1974 Superior Cadillac flower car, which was one of only 13 so-bodied out of the 1,000 Commercial Chassis Cadillacs shipped to Superior’s Lima, OH plant that model year. Actually, placing flowers on its stainless steel deck wasn’t possible, sadly, as the procession would have to use Interstates 95 and 295 in order to make a strictly-scheduled 11:15 am interment service made extra-memorable by the white dove that wandered around the wheels of the casket’s Art Deco style Aeon Model PBCC church truck and Gary A. Guth’s bagpipe rendition of “Anchors Aweigh.” Pre-committal Mike’s stepson Ian Kennedy detailed Mike’s first choice for his last ride was actually his baby blue metallic 1963 S&S Cadillac Park Row Combination Coach “but the master cylinder was leaking. That was THE ONE he wanted but trying to get parts for that thing is impossible, man!”
Written by PCS PUBLICITY & MEDIA RELATIONS CHAIR GREGG D. MERKSAMER
