Dick Gravino sailed through life

In November of 1962 while stationed in Germany with the U.S. Air Force, Dick Gravino had a second date with a German woman but stood her up. He instead had to attend a class but asked the woman to let him take her on another date. Five months later, they were engaged. They were married for 51 years.

“At that time, I thought, ‘Oh well’ and that I’d never see him again,” Margit Gravino said. “But I gave him another chance, and the rest is history.”

Gravino, a Longboat Key resident and past commodore of Sarasota Yacht Club, died Aug. 18. He was 73.

Born Sept. 23, 1941, in Lebanon, Pa., Gravino grew up in Hershey, Pa. Despite living across the street from a Hershey’s chocolate plant, although he was never fond of chocolate, according to Margit Gravino.

Gravino graduated from Lebanon Catholic High School in 1959 and joined the Air Force shortly thereafter, serving from 1960 to 1963. While based in Germany, he played football for the Rhein-Main Rockets, part of the United States Air Forces Europe Football League, and won the league’s championship.

To earn his bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, Gravino attended night school and military courses.

After he was honorably discharged from the Air Force, he pursued a career in finance. He moved 19 different times for his job to places such as Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Cleveland, Boston and even England.

It took him three tries to finally retire.

“He just missed working,” Margit Gravino said. “He missed challenging himself and wanted to learn new, different aspects of the financial business.”

In 1997, he was serving as the president of a Provident Bank branch in Cincinnati, when he discovered Longboat Key during a short vacation. The Gravinos bought a condo in Grand Bay in 1998, and he fully retired in 2004.

Gravino fell in love with the Sarasota Yacht Club and was instrumental in the development of a new club building. He served as commodore in 2008.

“It was Dick who was the driving force to make the new club to where it is today,” Sarasota Yacht Club member Sandra Ceshker said. “It would not be what it is today without him.”

During a span of 30 years, Gravino owned five different boats, each one bigger than the last. Four years ago, he took his current boat, the Mardi Gra — a combination of his and his wife’s names — to the Bahamas.

Although boating was his first love, Gravino also loved playing tennis, reading professional, historical and detective books, traveling and biking. He was also passionate about animals and his dogs.

Gravino will be missed for his love of live and sense of humor.

“He was certainly a people person and loved telling stories and jokes,” Gravino’s nephew, Mike Dunlap, said. “He was bigger than life. That’s a summation of who he was and what his life was about.”

Gravino is preceded in death by his parents, Nicolas Gravino and Margaret Dowhower, and his son, Richard. He is survived by his wife, Margit; daughter, Jill; a granddaughter; and siblings, Nicholas Gravino, Robert Dowhower, David Dowhower, Joseph Lanphier and Thomas Lanphier.

A public viewing was held Aug. 22.

In lieu of flowers, Gravino’s family requests donations be made to the All American Dachshund Rescue, allamericandachshundrescue.org or c/o Melissa Chenault, 5016 Spedale Court #236, Spring Hill, TN 37174.