FEATURED RESIDENT- JANUARY, 2010- ANTHONY JOHN FORNENGO
Members of the wonderful and extended Fornengo have lived in our community for many years. This month we are featuring a longtime contributor in many ways to our township.
Anthony John Fornengo was born to Doris and Tony Fornengo, who lived here in New Dosey, at the Siren, Wisconsin, hospital on April 28, 1951. He was the last of their six children.
John attended the Cloverton Grade school for grades 1-8, then went to the Sandstone High School, from which he graduated in 1970. During his senior year in high school, John started working for the railroad in Superior, Wisconsin, and went back to work there upon high school graduation.
John was drafted into the U.S. army in January of 1971. (He recalls that he and his family were gathered listening to the numbers and his was the last number called!)
He served 2 years in Frankfurt, Germany, as a Railway MP. He was one of a very small number of MPs serving in the entirety of Europe at that time.
Upon getting out of the Service, John picked up his job with the Canadien-Pacific Railroad and has worked there for over 42 years. In the meantime, he had met Robin Merritt, from California, when she was staying with friends in Sandstone and attending school in Duluth. They met at the old A& W Root Beer stand in Sandstone.
John and Robin were married in his mom and dad’s backyard under the lilacs on September 11, 1971. They have two adult children, Jason and Brannan, and three grandsons. Jason and his wife Erika and sons Dominic and Adam live next to John and Robin right here in Cloverton, while Brannan and her husband and son Elijah live in Finlayson.
Carrying a strong religious faith, John has been very involved in church activities for many years. He and Robin are members of the Siren Assembly of God congregation. John is part of a Men’s Group that meets every Thursday evening to discuss and deal with many issues, including addiction and recovery. A recovering alcoholic, John is proud of the fact, and rightfully so, that he took his last drink in January of 1981 and met the Lord during the same month.
Spending time with Robin, his children and grandchildren is another joy of John’s life.
John served on the New Dosey town board for 12 years, six of which saw him in the role of Town Chair. He laughingly recalls the crisis in the early 1990s when a supervisor election came in as a tie and he, along with Clerk Dave Baker, made the call to draw straws to determine a winner.
John hopes to retire in about 18 months and add hunting and fishing to the list of activities that he enjoys.
A grateful and admiring township wishes him well in all that he does.