IN MEMORY of Christopher James Canali, age 69 who passed on Tues Nov. 26th, 2013. Born in Brisbane in Queensland Australia to Thelma Canali nee French and James G. Canali, a GI from Pittsburgh, Christopher came with them to Pittsburgh (Mt. Washington) at 2 yrs of age, became a resident of Bethel Park in 1954 and graduated from Bethel Park Senior High School in 1962.
He attended Duquesne University for Journalism and there began his career as a radio announcer at WDUQ. His first position at a commercial station was at WLOA in Braddock PA and later took a position at WTOA in Liberty NY before finding his place for nearly 20 years at WHWH, the commercial radio station in Princeton NJ.
In his 40's he moved to Mercerville NJ outside of Trenton and began a new career as a writer for various pharmaceutical trade journals and his articles found their way into publications around the country and beyond. He retired in 2009. He fell ill and was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2013 and passed away Tuesday November 26th.
He is survived by his two daughters in the Trenton area, Christina Canali and Candice Canali, and by his brother Eric G. Canali of Brookline in Pittsburgh.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI first met Chris in the Fall of 1986 on the now-defunct Prodigy in an astrology forum. Back then Prodigy users were slaves to the old modems which made easy on-line chatting challenging at times.
ReplyDeleteWe had such an immediate connection we were motivated to fight through the technical challenges, eventually transitioning to long phone chats.
Shortly after bumping into each other online Chris challenged me with a simple message "Show me yours....and I'll show you mine". Although it sounds a little racy, Chris was talking about our individual astrological charts. He always had such a great way of putting things, which may partially explain his lifelong success as a writer and communicator.
After his challenge we pulled back our celestial kimonos to get down and dirty with the planets. That was the beginning of more than 25+ years of a deep friendship,endless online chatting, emails and phone calls about his planets and mine.
We had great conversations over the years about astrology as well as the ongoing life details of his beloved two daughters, antics of his various cats, nurturing of his beloved rose buses and "stangs"....to name just a few of the many topics we exhausted.
Chris was a lot of things, but he was never boring. He was hilarious, sarcastic and sharp as a tack. He always had a great comeback for anything. Sometimes he will throw out random comments to see how I would react.
He was one of those rare friends where you might not talk for a few months, but when you reconnected, it was like you had just talked yesterday.
He had such a big heart, it was no surprise to me that he went to New Orleans after Katrina to volunteer. He was also giving of himself to everyone. Chris was a rare human being who had so much compassion and love.
I will miss him dearly and hold in my heart forever.
My deepest condolences to his beautiful daughters Tina & Candi and all of his friends and family.
KAREN,
DeleteThank you so much for your beautifully worded tribute to Chris. I'm glad that he had folks like you who valued his unique spirit and very grateful you've posted your recollections here. Would it be ok with you if I posted your piece "up-front" as a blog-post for others to find more easily than tucked-away here in the comments?
- ERIC C. (Chris' brother in Pittsburgh)
Hi Eric,
DeleteThank you for your kind reply to my post about your brother Chris. I just saw your comment today when I stopped by as I was thinking of Chris on his birthday. I apologize for the delay. Please feel free to post my tribute anywhere you might feel others can remember Chris best.
My best thoughts to you and all of your family.
Karen