Maurice Ernest Corlandi

He was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1929. His father was Italian, and his mother was a Chaldean Christian. He grew up attending Catholic schools run by Jesuits from Boston University, so his English was impeccable. He always loved the idea of America. His uncle owned a cinema in Baghdad, where he loved to watch American movies featuring the likes of W.C Fields, Abbot & Costello, and the Marx Brothers.

He emigrated to the U.S. in his early twenties, went to college and ended up in Chicago, where he met his wife to be, Annie Cantrell. They moved to Athens, AL, his wife’s hometown, and he went to work with the Civil Service at Redstone Arsenal as a computer programmer.

He loved classical music, especially Rimsky-Korsakov, and opera music such as Pavarotti and the Three Tenors.

He loved to shop, and probably because he grew up in the Middle East, he loved to haggle with car dealers. He would always walk out of the dealership during the first round of negotiations. He loved Sam’s Club and Costco, where he knew the prices of all of the items he was interested in.

Maurice and Annie had three girls and two boys; Pierrette, Maurice Jr., Candace, Gabrielle, and Benjamin.