Biography

Michael Robert Ilardi Latimer is a second generation Italian on his mother’s side. Michael’s mother, Bianca Laura Ilardi was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1922. Michael’s mother lived most of her child-hood in Rome, Italy with her father, Pietro Ilardi and mother, Elisa Scongnamiglio. Pietro Ilardi attended and graduated from the famous Naples Conservatory of Music. He traveled extensively when he immigrated to the United States. Missing his family he would return to Italy and back to the United States on famous ocean liners such as the Andrea Doria and the Mauretania. In the 1930s he bought 70 acres on the side of a mountain across from Lake George, New York. Lake George is a 32 mile-long crystal clear, glacier-made lake in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. This is where Michael grew up. In his youth, Michael spent a great deal of time in the Lake George area, he would ride his ten-speed bicycle on long excursions. He, along with his brother Jimmy – just 11 months older than Michael - would hang out with other kids in the neighborhood and go on long walking “excursions” and play in the woods, along railroad tracks, jump off abandoned bridges over canals in rural upstate New York. Michael grew up along the banks of the Hudson River so far north one could almost throw a stone across – at New York City the river is over a mile wide. If you want to know exactly how Michael grew up, read the Stephen King novella, “The Body” or watch the Rob Reiner film, “Stand by Me.” That was Michael’s life. On one occasion, when Michael was about eleven years old he, his brother Jimmy and other kids from the neighborhood rode their bicycles to the county airport where (believe or not,) they would give the kids a plane ride for the price of their individual weight: a penny a pound! “The pilot flew us over our neighborhood in this single-engine piper. Can you imagine – neither parental consents nor releases of liability! Later in the day at home we called our mother so excited about our flight! I still feel the pain in my bottom and hear the yelling.” Michael, his brothers Gary and Jimmy were raised by the iron hand of their mother who had to raise three children on her own. She was tough, but a loving and fun mother. “ We realized at the time the sacrifices that our mother made to raise us, she worked 60 hours a week to keep a roof over our head and food on the table. I remember when I was a teenage and had a part time job I took her to a restaurant – I still remember what a thrill it was for her to eat at a restaurant; something she had not done for years. I believe being raised by a struggling single parent instilled in me a formidable work ethic but also the sense that money is earned through hard work.” Michael spent the last year of high school in Chihuahua, Mexico and although he did attend school, he seems to remember more of the tennis club he joined. Michael attended undergraduate and graduate school at the State University of New York at Albany – it was a huge campus - like University of Texas in Austin. He graduated with honors. He continued at the university doing graduate work and worked for the New York State Senate and also for the New York State Attorney General Consumer Fraud Bureau. While working for the senate, he wrote a bill that eventually was passed into law. He attended St. Mary’s School of Law. During the summer recess, he attended classes at UT Law in Austin, Texas. He graduated from St. Mary’s School of Law in May 1987, took the bar exam in July 1987 and was licensed in November 1987. Michael married Donna Marie Madonna an Italian girl from the same village in which Michael lived. Michael first saw her in Sixth grade and vowed to marry her someday. He did in 1982. Donna and Michael have two children, Melissa born in 1983 and Michael Vincent born in 1989. Although Donna and Michael divorced in 1995, they and their respective families are still very close. Michael has taken several trips to Italy to visit his family and spent considerable time in Venice and in the Italian Alps, near the Brenner Pass. He returns to Lake George often to be with his brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews from U.S. and Italy. Michael’s father was Robert Morgan Latimer. He served in World War II as a First Lieutenant in the Army. He was part of the 339th Infantry regiment, one of three regiments of the famous Custer Division, the 85th Infantry Division. The 339th regiment went overseas with the division in 1944 and was assigned to the Fifth Army. The 85th Infantry Division was one of the Fifth Army’s premier fighting divisions and contributed directly to the capture of Rome, the destruction of the German “Gothic Line’ in the North Apennines and the closure of the Brenner Pass in the Italian Alps. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. Sadly, he died at age 44 in 1965 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.