By all measures, Anthony “Tony” Volante was a class act.
The former Port Hueneme mayor and city councilman died April 13 after a brief fight with pancreatic cancer. He was 90.
Volante served the city from 1994 to 2006, but his legacy across Port Hueneme and Ventura County ripples out well beyond, family and friends noted.
As a farmily man, he was a loving husband of 65 years to wife Barbara Volante, a doting father to children Lucille and Michael Volante and an ever-present figure to his four grandchildren, said his daughter April 23.
Out of high school, Volante joined the Air Force in the early 1950s, according to a 2013 article in The Star and his obituary. In 1955, he moved with his parents and siblings from Jersey City, New Jersey to Burbank. He then joined the 146th Air National Guard Base in Van Nuys, his obituary says.
Volante met his wife at an Italian Catholic Federation dinner in the late 1950s.
“I pulled out a chair for her, she sat down, the chair broke, and she ended up on her behind,” he said in a 2013 article in The Star. “I looked down at her and said, ‘You just met me and already you’ve fallen for me.’”
The couple married in 1960 and by 1962, they welcomed the twins.
Lucy Neuenschwander described her father as “just very caring, loving.” She was her father’s “angel,” and her brother was his sports buddy. For the past 18 years, Tony and Michael Volante visited a different NFL stadium together.
“He was a great father, a very involved father,” Neuenschwander said.
At the start of the pandemic, the family created a text thread. For the past six years, the patriarch kept up the messages daily unabated.
“Every day, he would write something: Good morning. Have a great day,” Neuenschwander said.
In civic life, Volante set a high standard. For years, he shared regular breakfasts with Brad “Brick” Conners. They met in 2005 while Conners served as commanding officer of Naval Base Ventura County.
“If there was a hall of fame for publicly elected officials, he’d be my first-ballot nomination,” said Conners who later served as Port Hueneme’s city manager.
Conners said they clicked immediately, in part, because of their shared East Coast roots — Volante from New Jersey and Conners from Rochester, New York. His wife Terrie Conners and Barbara Volante also formed a close bond.
Volante and Conners also shared military service. Volante spent 40 years in the military, reaching the rank of colonel.
“I thought it was a good way to serve my country and go to college,” Volante said of his service in the 2013 Star article about him being named veteran of the year.
In the ’90s when miltary bases shuttered across the country, Volante was instrumental in ensuring Naval Base Ventura County stayed open, noted Conners who is now Ventura’s deputy city manager.
“The base is one of the largest employers in Ventura County,” Volante said in 2013. “It’s viable to the community and viable to the nation.”
For three decades, he also volunteered with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme and served in many capacities on the nonprofit’s board. About four years ago, the organization named a youth award after him.
Club CEO Erin Antrim said as a fresh-faced recent college graduate 23 years ago, Volante welcomed her warmly and did so with everyone.
“Tony was a great guy and great supporter and overall good human,” she said April 23.
Volante was integral in the club’s purchase of their Port Hueneme building from the city for $1, and the $6 million capital campaign to renovate the site.
“He loved the kids. He loved the organization,” she said. “Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of things.”
Volante toured the facility in late March but missed the grand re-opening April 17, Antrim said.
“It just wasn’t the same without him there,” she said.
Neuenschwander, his daughter, described her father as very religious, a devout Catholic who participated in the Knights of Columbus fraternal organization.
The cancer took her father quickly, she said, and while he lived a long life, they hoped for more time. Her father relied on his faith.
“Toward the end, he was ready to meet his God,” she said.
Stacie N. Galang is news director of the Ventura County Star. She can be reached at stacie.galang@vcstar.com or 805-437-0222.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Hueneme’s Volante remembered for love of family, country, community
Reporting by Stacie N. Galang, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
