Lambert Joseph Gonzales Jr.

Lambert Joseph Gonzales, Jr. , (“Bobby”) passed away peacefully Sunday, 27 June 2010, at his residence in Metairie in the presence of his family. He is survived by his beloved wife of 66 years, Gloria Schaff; a son, Lambert Joseph Gonzales, III; a daughter Janice Gonzales and her husband Francis Julian Barry, Jr.; grandchildren Maria Bertha Anna Barry and Francis Julian Barry, III , and his fiancée Meghann Fitzpatrick; and a sister Lorraine Braun Gonzales, as well as nieces, nephews, and cousins of the Gonzales and Schaff families. He was preceded in death by his parents Henrietta Morgan Bird and Lambert Joseph Gonzales, Sr., and by his sister Helen Gonzales (Mrs. Joseph A. Gemelli, Jr.).

Mr. Gonzales was born 20 November 1919 in New Orleans and was educated at St. Rose de Lima School on Bayou Road, St. Aloysius High School (Class of 1936), and Soulé Business College. During his career in the United States Coast Guard, he completed courses at the Franklin Technical Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, and the USCG Training Station at Groton, Connecticut. In 1956-57, he returned to the Training Station to teach his branch specialty.

His Coast Guard career spanned 26 years, from his enlistment in the opening months of World War II to his retirement as a Master Chief Petty Officer in September 1968. In addition to service in Louisiana, he was stationed in Aransas Pass, Texas; Juneau and Ketchikan, Alaska; Groton, Connecticut; and at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He was part of the Coast Guard unit that first established and maintained telephone communications down to the mouth of the Mississippi River and throughout remote areas of the Gulf Coast during World War II. In 1965, he was part of the detachment at the Industrial Canal that was cited by the Commandant for their mission to rescue citizens flooded in the Ninth Ward by Hurricane Betsy. His last assignment was in the Electronics Engineering Department of the Eighth Coast Guard District in New Orleans. Following his retirement from the Coast Guard and until 1981, he was on the staff of Tulane University in the Housing Department and at Tulane Law School.

Mr. Gonzales was passionate about opera and was also a fiercely competitive athlete from his teenage years. His memberships in the NOAC and in the City Park Tennis Club dated from the 1930’s. As a student and as an NOAC member, he won contests in swimming, boxing, and wrestling. He also played basketball and was the mascot of the NOAC’s AAU championship baseball team of 1933. He continued to compete at the City Park Tennis Club whenever his career in the Coast Guard permitted. In 1956, he won the Class B singles championship of the annual CAA tournament. The newspaper report of his victory described him as a “rabid tennis enthusiast.” The same news item noted music as his other great interest.

A lifelong lover of opera, Mr. Gonzales ushered for opera productions during his high school years and heard many of the great stars of his day, including Grace Moore and Nino Martini who came to New Orleans in 1939 with the Metropolitan Opera touring company. In Alaska, he was a faithful listener to the Texaco Metropolitan Opera broadcasts; and during his tour of duty in Connecticut, he made frequent trips to New York City to attend Met performances. Upon his return to New Orleans in 1960 and for many years thereafter, he held season tickets for the New Orleans Opera Association performances. His last attendance at a live performance was the production of Carmen in March 2009, when the Opera Association returned to the Theatre for the Performing Arts. His appreciation of opera continued to the very day after his stroke (17 June 2010) when he was still able to express his recognition of the aria “Nessun Dorma.”

Mr. Gonzales was a sixth generation New Orleanian and a descendant of St Domingue refugees.

His family are especially grateful to his niece by marriage Edna DeLucca (Mrs. David Klein), R.N., for her extraordinary generosity of assistance and expertise in his last illness, and to her husband David and children Audrey and Gatlin for bearing with the many impositions that were made upon their time. His illness was made easier to bear by the tenderness and compassion of Denise Brock and her loving caregivers Sandi, Betty, and Lorena, who quickly became members of the family and have continued to assist us in our time of great need.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a funeral Mass at JACOB SCHOEN & SON Funeral Home, 3827 Canal St., New Orleans at N. Scott St. on Friday, July 2, 2010 at 1:00 pm. Visitation will begin at 11:00am until Mass time. Interment will follow in Hope Mausoleum, 4841 Canal St. New Orleans. Please sign on line guest book at www.schoencanalstreet.com.