George Custodi

Aiken, South Carolina USA

George Custodi retired in 2005, after more than 30 years of company service, from the Savannah River Site, a 300 mi2 U.S. Department of Energy nuclear facility, where he was a manager in the field of automation and computer-based process control. He came to Aiken with DuPont in 1987 from Wilmington DE, where he was a manager in the Engineering Department. 

George was born in 1942 in Trani, ITALY a small town on the southern Adriatic. He immigrated to America, became a U.S. citizen, attended Iowa State University under a NROTC scholarship and received a degree in Chemical Engineering and a regular commission in the U.S. Navy. During a six-year stint at sea with the U.S. Navy during the Viet Nam conflict, he received numerous medals and awards including the Meritorious Service Medal, the Secretary of the Navy Commendation, and various Viet Nam campaign medals. He then attended Texas A&M University where he received his Master's in Chemical Oceanography. George continued serving in the U.S. naval reserve where he reached the rank of Captain and retired in 1992 after serving in various positions including command of a reserve destroyer, command of an oceanographic surveillance unit, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, and the Commander in Chief of the U.S Atlantic Fleet.

George is a multiple Paul Harris fellow in Rotary International, has served on the Board of the Sunrise Rotary Club and was president of the Club for 2009-10. In 2001, he was dubbed into the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, also known as the Knights Templar, was quickly elevated to Prior of the Priory of St. Vincent, and now holds the rank of Grand Croix in the International Order. He was recently appointed Deputy Grand Prior for the US Region III.

George is the retired founder and President of Partners in Friendship, an Aiken grass-roots organization dedicated to developing partner-city relationships with Orvieto, Italy and Shoalhaven, Australia.

George is married to Sandi and they have two daughters and one son. Victoria, who is self-employed in Charlotte, NC; Andrea, who has completed her doctorate from George Washington University in Human Sciences and is Executive Director of the Alliance for Global Education in Washington DC; and Stefan, who is working as a musician also in DC.

George's favorite hobby is traveling to Italy, particularly Umbria, which is rich in history, Etruscan archaeology, and excellent cuisine.

  IN THE NEWS

Seizing the Opportunities

An Interview with George Custodi

By Anna Dangerfield

Numerous families were fractured in war-torn Italy during World War II. For survivor George Custodi, his childhood played a major role in his appreciation of the opportunities he received when he moved to the United States.

Separated by War

Giorgio Luigi Custodi (George Louis Custodi) was born in Trani, Italy, in 1942. His parents, Angelo and Vera, married in 1941 during the Second World War. 

“They met in Trani when mamma Vera was 16 years old, and babbo, Italian for dad, was eight years older,” George said. “Babbo, a lieutenant in the Italian army, had a doctor’s degree in Mining Engineering and served in Mussolini’s Army Corps of Railroad Engineers. When he was deployed to Greece in 1943, mamma and I stayed behind.” 

As the war progressed and no information was forthcoming from Angelo, Vera assumed he had died. 

“When the American military arrived in southern Italy, a young officer started visiting my mother,” George said. “She eventually married this American, Army Captain William “Bill” Berg. 

“When the war ended in 1945, babbo returned home. He had been interned by the Germans and placed in a POW camp in Poland. Mamma was horrified to learn that she was now legally married to two men as divorce was illegal in Italy,” George said.  

When his military tour of duty ended, now Air Force Major Berg moved his wife and their new son, Walter, to the United States. George remained in Italy with his father. 

“Babbo had been brutally treated in the POW camp and was devastated when he returned home to discover that his wife had remarried. But this was a circumstance of that time,” George said. 

Now a single father and a shattered man, Angelo and his son moved to his ravaged hometown of Torino to seek work. George lived with his father’s brother and wife, while his father tried to pull his life together. Later, George lived with his paternal grandparents, and eventually, with his maternal grandparents when his father remarried. 

A New Life in Germany

“When Col. Bill Berg was reassigned to Germany, and at his urging, Bill and Vera traveled to Italy to talk with babbo,” George said. “Bill wanted me to move to Germany and live with Vera, their son, and two daughters.” 

 At the age of 10 and with his babbo’s permission, George left Italy. As this new family bonded, George was urged to take his stepdad’s name. “I didn’t, but I did begin to call him Dad,” George said. 

In Germany, George endured a traumatic transition from the Italian culture to the American culture at the Air base where Dad was posted. 

While his teachers liked him, he found that some of his fellow students didn’t. His smaller stature in the 6thgrade invited frequent bullying from some classmates. “I spoke little English with a strong accent,” George said. “The bullies hurled insults labeling me the enemy. Perhaps they knew that Italy had been an ally of the Germans.”

But one day, George finally decided to fight back. He became adept at physically defending himself, learned to speak English without an accent, and improved his vocabulary by reading the dictionary. By the end of the 7th grade, he had become an A student in English. “I viewed adversity as a challenge,” George said. 

After three-and-a-half years in Germany, George’s dad was assigned to the Pentagon, and the family moved to the United States.

Life in the United States

In his American high school, George was not a target of bullying. “…But my fervent desire to prove and improve myself continued. I wanted to prove that intellectually, I could keep up with kids my age and even surpass their efforts,” he said. 

George achieved his goals. He became a member of the National Honor Society and was voted Most Likely to Succeed. His participation in class and church plays improved his English, and he became accepted and integrated well into the student body.

Although he became a United States citizen, George continued to relate to those from other countries. “Mother became angry when I invited a Korean girl to the senior prom because no one had asked her. I couldn’t accept the unfairness of stigmatizing her because of the Korean War,” he said. 

In 1960, George graduated in the top 20 of his class. “I progressed from an unknown and timid boy to a person who achieved a reasonable ending to his high school career,” he said.

When he graduated, George received two scholarships, choosing the one offered by the United States Navy. He attended Iowa State University in the NROTC program and graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. 

The Navy 

In 1964, George was commissioned into the United States Navy and went to sea as a Navy ensign. He was at sea for six years, including three deployments to Viet Nam. 

“I served with Her Majesty’s Royal Navy for one year as an exchange officer from the U.S. Navy. Next, I went to the shipyards in San Pedro and became chief engineer of the destroyer USS Hepburn,” he said.

When George left the Navy, he remained in the Navy Reserve, eventually retiring after 28 years of service as a Navy Captain. “I had a great experience and was called up for both Gulf Wars. I was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for service to the Joint Chiefs of Staff during an 11-year period,” he said.

George’s love of the sea influenced his choice of further education. In 1971, he graduated from Texas A and M University with a master of science in Chemical Oceanography.

His Path to Aiken 

George met his wife, Sandi Lackey, in Long Beach, California, while he was in the U.S. Navy. They married in 1970 and moved to Richmond, Virginia, where he became the manager of an Analytical and Forensic laboratory. Their children, Victoria, Andrea, and Stefan, were born in Richmond.  

When George was offered a job by the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the family moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was promoted to management, working until the latter part of the 1980s in the Engineering department. In 1988, they moved with DuPont to Aiken where George worked at the Savannah River Site. He became the manager of computer resources at the SRS’s Defense Waste Processing Facility. When Westinghouse replaced DuPont, he stayed until his retirement in 2005. 

Partners in Friendship 

“I am an American of Italian heritage, and I appreciate the value of understanding other countries,” he said. “In 1990, I visited then-mayor Fred Cavanaugh to see if Aiken could develop a sister city relationship with a town in Italy. Fred was very supportive. At first, the City joined Sister Cities International, but eventually backed away from that organization. 

“In 1995, I visited Orvieto, an Italian city about the size of Aiken, where my father’s cousin lived. I was a member of the Aiken Sunrise Rotary and was going to the Rotary meeting in Orvieto. At the meeting place, I discovered the club had traveled to Spain. The attendance taker left behind was the artist Livio Orazio Valentini. I walked to his studio to ask for Rotary attendance verification” George said.

Over a drink at the bar on the square, the two Rotarians discussed forming a relationship between their cities. 

“With the continued support of many Aiken factions, within two years, we had signed an agreement with Orvieto to establish a Partners in Friendship (PIF) organization,” George said. “High school students have participated in the exchange program, USC Aiken students have worked in archeological digs in Orvieto, and at least one wedding has resulted from these exchanges.” 

George served as president of PIF which eventually added the Shoalhaven district of Australia as a partner in 1999.

The Italian Influence

Food is an important component of any culture, and many Aikenites have enjoyed dinners prepared by an Italian chef for more than 15 years.  

Many have also been exposed to the beautiful jewelry created by Italian designers Massimo and Tiziana Aloisio, while others have enjoyed the music of the Italian violinist Matteo Fedeli who performs on both Stradivari and Guarneri violins.

Perhaps one of the greatest gifts resulting from the Partners in Friendship organization is the relationship established with Livio Orazio Valentini.

“Livio was an artist in residence at USC Aiken and is the subject of the book, Livio Orazio Valentini: An Artist’s Spiritual Odyssey written by Dr. Robert E. Alexander and Dr. John A. Elliott,” George said.

Knights Templar

George’s bi-cultural heritage promotes his empathy and concern for the world and combines with his spirituality in his Knights Templar membership.

“The Knights Templar is a chivalrous order dedicated to helping the Christians at risk in the Middle East,” George explained. “We provide scholarships to Christian students in Palestine and donate money to Christian patriarchs who run schools in Israel.”

He has been a member since 2002 in the Knights Templar Priory of St. Vincent and has held various positions including Prior. “I am now the Assistant Deputy Grand Prior for Region Three. I was promoted to Grand Croix and also received the high honor of Legion of Merit this past summer,” he said.  

George’s Christian beliefs are rooted in the Catholic and Lutheran influences from his childhood. “Faith is a spiritual connection to God and religion is following a man-made dogma. I see myself as a spiritual person who has moved away from dogma and closer to a connection with God,” he said. 

Spring 2007

George’s spirituality provided much-needed support when he discovered in the Spring of 2007 that his retirement years might be short lived. “I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow cells,” he said.

George prepared to donate at the Shepeard Community Blood Center after a Rotary meeting. His donation was refused with an explanation that he was anemic. George saw his doctor and now believes the halted donation saved his life. 

“At the time of diagnosis, I thought I was going to die,” George said. “But the good Lord was looking out after me. I underwent a stem cell transplant, chemotherapy treatments, and now take Revlimid, an analog of Thalidomide. 

“When I was diagnosed, I knew I had to fight,” he said. “I turned to religion, meditation, eating well, and exercise. The diagnosis changed my life. I’m now more appreciative of everything. The cancer is on hold, and though my immune system is challenged, I am doing well.” 

George needed his health in order to complete an important project.

Tre Testimoni: Three Witnesses  

The project that required George’s energy was to complete his book about witnesses to World War II. George wrote Tre Testimoni: Three Witnesses, capturing war memories of three men. 

“I transcribed and translated my father’s diary, memoirs of Valentini, and the diary of an Orvietan farmer, and then compiled them into a book displaying their Italian writing along with my English translations,” George said. 

“Babbo’s diary was written when he was confined to the Concentration Camp No.333, Beniaminow, Poland.

 “Valentini’s war story, Remembrances 1940-1945, was about his time as a prisoner in the German concentration camp of Buchenwald. 

“Then I added the published diary of Attilio Cerchecci, a farmer who observed the passage of the Allied-German front through Orvieto and its surroundings,” George said.

His book is available on Amazon and has been used by college students and presented in various venues.

My Family

George maintained contact with his babbo who remained in Italy. “We corresponded and preserved our relationship. I was there in November of 1989 when he passed away. My American dad, General (Ret.) William Berg, died the year before. He was intelligent, cultured, spiritual and a wonderful human being. He was a great role model for me,” George said. 

His mother continues to live in her home in Alexandria, Virginia, and is now in her nineties. “The war tore up families, so I never resented her for remarrying and moving to the United States,” George said. “I keep in contact with my half-brother and two half-sisters, one of whom now lives in Mt. Pleasant.

“My wife, Sandi, and I raised our family to appreciate their Italian heritage. We first took the kids to Italy in the late ‘70s. Both daughters were high school international exchange students. Our daughter Victoria opened an import business of Italian artisanal foods and daughter Andrea majored in international studies in college. Our son Stefan appreciated the piano and accordion music from his Italian great-grandfather and put it in digital form,” George said. 

The United States Changed My Life

 George is passionate about opera, music, and his three grandchildren. He is also the consummate host using his chemical skills to perfect his version of limoncello, an Italian drink. 

“Adversity and memories of war-torn Italy were my incubators for success,” he said. “I taught myself English, studied hard, and learned as much as I could. I discovered that hard work and persistence were the ways to get ahead in life. I learned to just do it.

“My life changed because of the numerous opportunities I encountered when I came to this country,” George said. “Here, I received an education, a career, a beautiful family, and a wonderful life. I am not sympathetic with those who complain about the United States. People don’t realize the opportunities, abundance, and freedom that we enjoy. I am deeply grateful to the United States for the opportunities I was offered.”

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Victoria Custodi Zabel interviewed her father for Story Corps in 2013. She wanted to capture his story in his voice and in his own words. Thank you to her for some of the information contained in this article.