Gaetano E. Michetti

August 3, 1957 - January 7, 2025

Gaetano Eduardo “Guy” Michetti was born on August 3, 1957, at Pennsylvania Hospital in the City of Brotherly Love, the eldest child of Roberto and Maria Grace Michetti, a small business owner and a nurse, each of whom had arrived in Philadelphia from Italy (Abruzzi, and Naples) in the mid 1950s to make their American dreams come true. Guy was raised in a warm extended Italian-American family, surrounded by love, music and relatives. As his younger brother Marco recalls, “Our fondest Friday nights were sitting around with our parents singing,”—their mother on piano and their father’s love of opera inflected in his vocals. “If our uncle visited there’d be accordion too.” Guy’s devotion to and love of music and family were the two everlasting throughlines of his life. The former brought him to study at Temple University, where he perfected his craft with a major in classical guitar.

But his passion for learning didn’t stop there. Guy devoured books and built his life around them as well. No subject was too dense for Guy to tackle through reading, be it poetry or policy, chess or history, great works of fiction or the stuff stars are made of.Guy could quote everything from Carl Sagan to Star Trek with ease. In the early 1990s, while working at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Philly, he taught himself all there was to know about computers and the burgeoning internet and began a correspondence online with the late Leonard Riggio, the famed CEO of Barnes and Noble, who recognized Guy’s innate talent and curiosity and propelled him, rightfully so, up the ranks of B & N. There, Guy helped create its modern IT department, bringing the bookstore into the digital age.

Though let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves: first there were tours with Bill Haley and the Comets, flights with jazz greats and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and guitar playing with new wave bands like Denny and the Dropouts–the first act of a musical career that was to last his whole life through. And, of course, before he hit the ground floor of B & N’s IT department, there was a stint managing a bookstore in Staten Island, New York, where he met his beloved, Valerie (De Grandis) Michetti, when she came in to apply for a job.

What began as a workplace romance became a marriage of thirty years, with annual trips to the Newport Folk Festival, cats, a dog, dreams of their own bookstore, and above all: love, laughs, and music. Guy played, and Valerie danced. Guy, after a hiatus from playing and at Valerie’s urging, recorded two full length CDs, “All in My Mind,” and “Headin’ for the Crossroads,”, and the couple founded their own record label: Ferry Boat Records. At the same time, Guy started playing at open mics at various places like the Muddy Cup, and met fellow singer/songwriters who he befriended and played with throughout the rest of his life. It was during these years of sunshine too that Guy took on his first (to our knowledge) acting gig, playing George Harrison in a Beatles cover band called the Beats and even donning an orange Sergeant Pepper costume and/or Beatles wig when the gig required it. (The night the Beats played a United Nations Christmas party, the UN General Secretary Kofi Annan even popped in for a listen, and Guy had the presence of mind to ask him for a request. His answer: “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”)

Later, when Valerie was stricken unexpectedly with early onset Alzheimer’s in her early 50s, that devotion to family that had been so clear in Guy from an early age showed in his truly saintly devotion to his wife. There was no health care tangle too forbidding, no crisis too dire and no moment of compassion too difficult for Guy to muster the strength of a boxer or the heart of an angel. He was, is and always will be Valerie’s greatest champion. Their love was, as their wedding song predicted, “here to stay.”

Here on Staten Island, anyone who knew Guy wanted to play with him. His talent and versatility were incredible as he could pretty much play anything extremely well, including nine different instruments. He jammed with many and was in a number of bands. He was one of the first performers and a founding member of the now well established Westerleigh Folk and Art Festival. Guy played that festival numerous times as well as many venues on the island with Half Moon, Guys In The Band, Acoustic Thunder, Queen Tipsy and most recently, The Lisa Scherma Band. He loved being in the studio and was especially at home at his friend Henry’s Moon Studios. He was also a fixture at Staten Island’s famed Mandolin Brothers music store; Stan loved to have him around playing music when someone like Edie Brickell (we think it was Edie Brickell!) came in to browse. He was an incredible songwriter with a number of CDs under his belt, who co-wrote and recorded songs with Scherma as well. All of these creations will now be a part of his legacy. His memory, and his music, will always live on.

Guy is predeceased by his parents, Roberto and Maria Grace, and a sister, Gilda, who died in infancy.. He is survived by his brother, Marco Michetti, his nephews Anthony and Marco, Jr, his niece, Lauren, seven grand nieces and nephews–Giselle. Anthony, Matteo, Michael, Nina, Mimi and Layla–his beloved wife Valerie, his stepdaughter Alexis, his best friend, Lisa, a dear extended family, and an entire musical community that loved and admired him so.

Visitation will be on Monday, January 20th, from 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm at Harmon Funeral Home, 571 Forest Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10310. A mass of Christian burial will be held on Tuesday, January 21st at 10:00 am at the Church of St. Rita, 281 Bradley Avenue, Staten Island 10314. Interment immediately following at Resurrection Cemetery, 361 Sharrott Avenue, Staten Island 10309.