Terry Giudici of Huntington: Business owner who watched over his family

Terry Giudici of Huntington was a businessman who made it his business to be active in every community he touched.

Giudici would regularly and selflessly step up to make a positive impact on those around him, according to his family and friends.

“He didn’t need notoriety," said his wife, Lois Giudici. "He just needed to be a good person."

Terry Giudici died May 10 in Naples, Florida, after a seven-week battle with COVID-19. He was 77.

Born on June 11, 1942, in Huntington Hospital, he grew up in Huntington Station with his parents and two sisters, Lorraine and Marylou. He graduated from Huntington High School in 1960 and worked for his father, who had started a home-based residential electrical business in 1947.

After high school, Giudici served in the Army National Guard. According to lifelong friend Michael Lauri, who was also in the National Guard in the mid-1960s, Giudici served as an auto mechanic and completed his basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia.

After he died, Giudici's friends had the option to write comments on the website of a Naples funeral home. While being interviewed by Newsday, Lauri shared the tribute he wrote.

“You were a great father and successful businessman who served his customers with honesty, respect and integrity," Lauri wrote. "How grateful and lucky can one be to be able to experience a friendship such as ours?”

In 1998, Giudici took over the family business, Giudici Electric, working side by side with his sisters, both bookkeepers, for a total of more than 40 years. He expanded the business after he bought a building on Broadway in Huntington Station. His sons, Christopher and Glenn Giudici, now run the business.

Even after stepping down about eight years ago, Terry Giudici would often stop by the office to check in on everyone.

“There [were] a lot of cousins who, throughout the years, worked there. [Terry Giudici] gave everybody a job," said Marylou Giudici. "My brother was very good that way. He was always helping out."

On Oct. 10, 1980, Giudici married the former Lois Peshkin and gained a stepdaughter to go along with his two sons and a daughter from a previous marriage.

Terry Giudici joined the Rotary Club of Huntington and later ran the annual clambake at Crab Meadow Beach in the late 1980s. In 1991, he received the Paul Harris Fellow award, Rotary International's prestigious honor.

“Terry was always a doer. He always wanted to help out no matter what the project was,” said Bill Bohn, former president of the Rotary Club of Huntington.

Giudici’s sense of community extended past his activities with the Rotary Club. He served as president of Whitman Ridge, a condominium complex in Melville, after he and his wife moved there in 1993 and led a project to get four units completed. He would also often provide pro bono electrical services for the YMCA in Huntington.

Marylou Giudici, his youngest sister, recalled how her brother’s generosity impacted her personally.

“He was just a great brother,” she said. “He bought me my first air conditioner for my bedroom, my first television, my first dog … he watched over all of us.”

In 2012, Terry Giudici and his wife began spending their winters in Florida, creating a community among friends who followed them from New York. The couple would play golf together and helped coordinate events for the community, including rib night for 150 guests.

“Terry was always helping set up or whatever was needed. He helped cook and was at the grill,” Lois Giudici said.

His friends at the Glen Eagle Golf and Country Club in Naples conducted a memorial for him at the club's flagpole. Each person in attendance spoke about Terry Giudici before walking down to the lake and hitting golf balls with messages on them into the water to honor him.

Other survivors includeGiudici's his daughter, Jill Perez; stepdaughter Debra Andrews, of Massapequa; and nine grandchildren.

A memorial will be held at a later date.