Col. Louis J. Cataldo, Malibu resident since 1967, died Oct. 21 in Agoura Hills at the age of 92. Cataldo was born July 30, 1912 in Boston, Mass. to Amato and Anuncia Cataldo. The eldest of six brothers and sisters, he began working fulltime in a leather factory when he was 15. He later completed his education through two years of study at the University of Maryland.
Drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943, Cataldo graduated from Officer Candidate School and served during World War II in the Pentagon, the Philippines and as part of Gen. MacArthur’s logistics staff, implementing economic development programs during the occupation of Japan.
Re-assigned to the Pentagon, Cataldo took part in the early planning and implementation of the newly created U.S. Air Force, including providing testimony to Congress.
In 1953, while commanding an Air Force materiel group stationed near Rabat, Morocco, Caltaldo met his future wife, Pierra Gina Minorini, a Los Angeles native working in Rabat as the Air Force Base historian. They married March 5, 1955 in Germany and returned to the United States later that year.
Cataldo retired from the Air Force in 1967 and moved to Malibu where his wife’s family had owned land since the 1940s.
Cataldo is survived by his daughter, Caroline Ramirez, his son, John Cataldo, four granddaughters, Melissa, Chelsea, Christina and Jessica, his brother, Anthony, and his sisters, Camela and Jean. Visitation will be on Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks, located at 5600 Lindero Canyon Road in Westlake. Funeral Mass will take place on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Malibu Church.