Gino Carlotti

Gino Carlotti, 93, of Millcreek Township passed away on December 17th, 2025 at Sarah Reed Senior Living. Born in Erie, the son of Luigi and Corinna Caciagli Carlotti, he attended Sacred Heart School and Cathedral Prep - Class of 1950, and graduated from Gannon University with a BA in Political Science and from Allegheny College with a Masters of Arts in Guidance and Counseling. He did additional graduate work in school administration at Edinboro University, State University of New York at Fredonia, and at St. Bonaventure University.

Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army through Gannon's R.O.T.C. program, he served in Korea as a member of UNCMAC (the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission) in 1954-55. He was the Aide-de-Camp to Major General Harlan C. Parks, the senior officer on the Commission, and he participated in numerous meetings with the North Korean Armistice Commission on the site of the 38th Parallel at Panmunjom.

He retired from the Millcreek Township Schools in 1991 after 32 years of service as a Social Studies teacher at Westminster Junior High School, a Guidance Counselor at various Millcreek secondary schools, and as Assistant Principal at J.S. Wilson and Westlake Middle Schools. His last position with the school district was as the Coordinator of Federal Programs and Director of Student Assistance. For several years Mr. Carlotti also served as an adjunct instructor in the Education Department of Gannon University and Mercyhurst College.

After retiring he became an independent educational consultant to various Erie County school districts, the Erie County Office of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, and Hamot Medical Center's Department of Behavioral Health. In conjunction with Hamot, he became a trainer in the State's SAP (Student Assistance Program) specializing in adolescent suicide prevention and the establishment of school crisis response teams. In 1997 he was named the Retired Educator of the Year for the State of Pennsylvania by the National Retired Teachers Association and honored at their convocation in San Diego. In 2007 he and his wife were recipients of the local "Bread Box Award" in recognition of their having generously shared the gifts of their 50th Wedding Anniversary with Erie's Second Harvest Food Bank.

He was a Past President of the Erie County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees (PASR) and a Past Director of PASR's Region 9 serving chapters in Crawford, Erie, Forest, Warren and Venango Counties. He was a member of PASR's President's Cabinet and was the webmaster for the association's original website which he created, and a member of the association's Speakers' Bureau and the State Resolutions Committee.

His community volunteer activities included membership in the St. Vincent Auxiliary serving as an escort in the hospital's admissions office, and as a former volunteer staff member of Erie's Community Access Television station. He was also a past member of the Millcreek Township Diversion Program and the Erie County Drug and Alcohol Coalition. For several years he was a spokesman for CORE, the Center for Organ Replacement Education of western Pennsylvania, as a representative of donor families due to the untimely passing of his daughter-in-law, Elaine Semenoff Carlotti, who was a multiple organ donor after her death in 1995.

In addition to being a prolific writer of "Flashback" columns that were published in the Erie Times-News from 1997 to 2004, he also authored several articles on guidance and counseling that were published in professional educational journals, and a book on his experience of growing up in an Italian-American home in the 1940's and 50's. He was also a well-known speaker on a variety of topics at schools, church groups and various civic organizations in the greater Erie area and throughout the State of Pennsylvania. He was an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist at both Sacred Heart Church and St. George Church where he also created and authored their monthly newsletters.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife of 64 years, Ann Ferrare Carlotti, two cousins with whom he was raised as a sibling, Ednamae Carlotti Sabol and Carl Carlotti, and his daughter-in-law, Elaine Semenoff Carlotti and former-daughter-in-law, Mary Jo Mucha Carlotti.

He is survived by his son Rick and three grandchildren, Jessica (Jason Zelesnik), Michael and Corinna Carlotti. He is also survived by several cousins in Italy and many nieces and nephews.

Friends are invited to call on Monday at the John R. Orlando Funeral Home, Inc., 2122 Raspberry Street, from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. and may attend a Funeral Mass on Tuesday at Saint James Church, 2635 Buffalo Rd., at 10:00 a.m. Burial will be in Wintergreen Gorge Cemetery. The family requests that memorial donations be made to The Alzheimer's Foundation of America, www.alzfdn.org or to PASR's Memorial Honor Fund, 873 Century Dr., Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 .