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Aldo John Urbani, 89, died peacefully at his home in Lambertville, Michigan on May 23, 2017 of congestive heart failure.  He was born August 25^th, 1927 on Glenfield Avenue in Detroit to Agostino and Bice Giovannina (DeLorenzo) Urbani,  but spent his childhood in the village of Lorenzago in the Dolomite mountains of northern Italy. His widowed mother returned to Detroit with Aldo and her four other children on the last ship to cross the Atlantic before WWII.   He graduated from Denby High School in 1945, then joined the Navy as an Air Force Cadet, earning a Mechanical Engineering degree from Wayne State University.  Aldo joined Continental Aviation Engineering as a design engineer in 1953, and met Trudy Wieske at a YMCA Ballroom Dance Class.  They married at Assumption Grotto Church on April 24, 1954, built a home in Mount Clemens and started a family. In 1970, Continental Aviation was acquired by Teledyne, and approximately 150 engineers and their families were relocated to the Toledo, Ohio area.  Wanting their two children to attend the University of Michigan, Aldo and Trudy built a home in Green Hills, a subdivision one mile north of the Ohio border. There he devoted his considerable passion for gardening to creating a lovely tree-filled oasis of hostas, hydrangeas and tomatoes.  When he retired in 1990 he added cooking to his talents, and shared his delicious recipes, including sausage making, a family tradition.

An award-winning Master Gardener, Aldo was widely known and admired for his knowledge of anything that grows and a willingness to share this expertise. Aldo was a former member of the Black Swamp Hosta and Day Lily Organization, the Bedford Beautification Committee, the Bedford Garden Club, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Toledo Zoo.  His hobbies included gardening, reading, listening to opera and jazz, and channel-surfing the TV for anything on politics, history, geography, science, travel, or nature – when he was not watching the Weather Channel. Aldo was a unique individual who will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

He was preceded in death by his parents, and siblings Spartaco, Lillian Radics, and Augusta Tolmer.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Trudy Urbani, Bedford Township author, historian and cabin-preservationist; daughter Karen Urbani, MD (Olivier Lichtarge, MD, PhD) of Bellaire, Texas; and son Eric Urbani (Shaeda) of Burlingame, California; as well as six grandchildren: Ryan, Jared and Sara Lichtarge; and Shaydanay, Maxwell and Roxanne Urbani. Aldo is also survived by his sister Elsa Weissenberg, and nieces Lenore, Roberta, Michelle and Rebecca.

Per his request, Aldo will be cremated and a memorial service will be held at a later date. Donations can be made in his name to Hospice of Northwest Ohio, whose Nurse Melissa and the Comfort Caregivers made his last months easier for all involved. Arrangements by the Michael W. Pawlak Funeral Home, Temperance, MI. www.pawlakfuneralhome.com