Armand John Regalbuti, 92, of Suffield, CT passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, as snow gently fell with the coming of dawn. Armand was born in Lee, MA, on January 8, 1932, to Costanti and Elisabetta Regalbuti. They had immigrated to Lee from Italy fifteen years earlier.

Armand was sailing on the high seas returning from Italy with his mother on September 3, 1939, when World War II began. His siblings Vicki, Irma, Elsie, and John predeceased him.

Nicknamed "Grap" for his tenacity, Armand was a three-letter athlete in baseball (shortstop), basketball (point guard), and football (quarterback, half back and defensive back) at Lee High School which he graduated from in 1949. He also played semi-pro baseball and was an expert ballroom dancer.

Armand enlisted in the Air Force in 1952. He was stationed at Samson Airforce base in western New York, Tokyo, and Manila. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant and was honorably discharged in 1956. He received the National Defense Services Medal, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and Good Conduct Medal.

Thereafter, on the GI Bill, Armand enrolled at American International College in Springfield, MA, where he received a B.A. degree in 1959. He received a Master of Arts degree in education from Springfield College in 1964.

On November 8, 1959, he married Patricia Julia Maginnis. Devoted parents, they had three sons: Mark (64), Eric (61) and John (60).

Armand began a 50-year career in education in 1960 as a teacher and varsity baseball team coach at Suffield High School. He later worked as an assistant principal, housemaster, and principal at schools in East Windsor, Enfield, and New Britain.

Armand was a dual citizen of the United States and Italy. Beginning in 1969, he served as principal for the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS) and was stationed with his family for three summers in Rome at Loyola College. Subsequently, for eight summers he was a traveling principal for AIFS in Italy, France, Spain, and England.

After that, he visited Italy more than sixty times on his own, with his wife Pat, friends, and son John as late as June 2023. Throughout life with effusive energy and enthusiasm he developed a broad circle of friends in New England and Italy. Armand had an uncanny ability to make friends and connections anywhere he went. In the mid- 1990s, while traveling near Florence, Italy he witnessed a re-enactment of battles between the Allies and Germans along the Gothic Line. He became fast friends with the directors of the event. Later, he returned to participate in the yearly re-enactments held in a number of Italian towns a number of times.

He provided war memorabilia to the Museo Gatica in Florence, Italy run by his good friend Luca Bambagiotti.

When a 6.2 magnitude earthquake ravaged the Italian town of Amatrice in 2016, Armand traveled there to personally deliver school supplies and monetary donations he had raised. In 2020, by researching service records he secured headstones at the Massachusetts Veterans' Memorial Cemetery in Agawam for two men from Lee who were lost at sea in the Pacific Ocean while serving in the Navy during World War II. This helped give the families closure.

Armand was a lifelong golfer and trout fisherman. He was a member of the Suffield Country Club since1985. He was still hitting them straight in October 2023.

Armand's genial disposition endeared him to many. As a teacher and principal he served as a mentor for students and peers alike. He remained lifelong friends with students he coached on the Varsity baseball team in 1960 at Suffield High School: Jimmy Glaser, Bruce Root, Richie Gibson, Ray Mandarola, Billy Glynn, Billy Flynn, and the late Artie Merrill. Later, after the love of his life and wife, Pat, passed away in 2010; he reunited with Nina Privitera whom he attended elementary school with. Over the years Armand met weekly with fellow principals for breakfast. Outside the baseball team, Rick and Joan Mocarski, Ronnie and Elizabeth Orlandi, Jimmie Viola, Nancy Nealon, Jack and Joanne Serrato, Steve Ross, and Peter Tenerowicz, whom he attended college with, were his dearest friends. With all these friends and family, he made many adventurous trips to Italy, throughout the continental United States, and Canada. He lived life to the fullest and was the quintessential people person.

The connections Armand made with people and the lifelong friends he had are a testament to a life well lived. Truly a man of the world, he will forever be in the hearts of his friends and family.

He is survived by his sons; daughter-in-law Misty Miller; grandson Keith, who is a scratch golfer living and working in Foxboro, MA, and his niece Beth Caur of Northampton, MA.

The Inurnment Service with Military Honors will take place on January 26, at 9a.m. in the Massachusetts Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery, 1390 Main Street, Agawam, MA. A Mass will be held in his remembrance at Sacred Heart Church, 446 Mountain Road in Suffield CT, on January 28 at 9:30a.m. In lieu of flowers, send donations to the National Audubon Society. For online condolences, please visit www.SuffieldFuneralHome.com