Submitted photo

William Dattilo was stationed in Oceanside, Ore., in 1943. He visited the coastal community on numerous occasions throughout the rest of his life. He was also stationed in the Philippines and Japan during World War II.

William Dattilo called his Sicilian mother for her bread recipe sometime in 1962. And with his “touch,” he soon after came to be known by many as the “bread man.”

Mr. Dattilo, 87, a devout Catholic, deacon, chaplain, husband, father, and grandfather, died last week at his home in St. Joseph after years of declining health.

Born of Sicilian parents, the first generation American helped his father operate the family grocery store located on Frederick Avenue. Mr. Dattilo left St. Joseph to serve in the Army during World War II. He was injured in a Jeep accident while stationed in the Philippines. The injury to his back, which required extended periods of bed rest, eventually forced him out of seminary at Conception where he was on a path to the priesthood after the war.

Mr. Dattilo began a 30-year career with Western Chemical Co. in the early 1950s after his father died and the grocery store closed. He started a family in the 1960s and shortly thereafter began the hobby of baking bread.

“His first six loaves were like doorstops,” said Imogene Dattilo, his second wife. They were married 38 years. Marguerite, his first wife and mother to their two children, Ann Marie and Therese, died in 1967 after battling cancer.

But he persisted in his bread making and soon it became a passion. When asked about the recipe and what makes it special, Mrs. Dattilo shrugs and says, “It’s touch more than anything.”

Hundreds of children at Cathedral School got their first lesson in baking bread from Mr. Dattilo, who would show up around the youngsters’ First Holy Communion every year.

“‘Food for the soul and food for the body,’ as he put it,” Mrs. Dattilo said of her husband’s explanation of the relationship between communion taken during Mass and the bread he taught the children to make.

He was ordained in 1976 and was an active deacon, serving for nearly 25 years as chaplain at Heartland West.

“Dad couldn’t go one day without getting out of the house and going somewhere to help someone do something or deliver fresh, homemade bread to them,” said daughter Therese Blakley at his visitation. “He thrived on interacting with people.”

Eldest daughter, Ann Marie Stark, said even though he was known to go out of his way for people in the community in need, family came first.

“He really cared about his family and extended family,” she said, adding that they were always taking trips to see aunts and uncles. “Family was probably the most important thing to him.”

Jimmy Myers can be reached

at jimmym@npgco.com.