Restaurant owner remembered as genuine, helpful
Mike Carmody greeted customers to his restaurant in Pittsburgh's North Hills with such affection that they felt as if they were his friends.
'Anyone that came into that restaurant was greeted by Dad from the heart,' said his daughter, Mary Grace Carmody. 'A lot of people we didn't know outside the restaurant felt they were good friends of Mike. He was genuine.'
Michael J. Carmody died of cancer Friday at his home in Ohio Township, Allegheny County. He was 58.
Mr. Carmody was owner and operator of Carmody's Restaurant at Route 910 and Nicholson Road in Wexford, which had been founded by his late father, Joseph, and his mother, Ethel May.
Their son worked in the family business all his life and continued the family-style tradition. Mary Grace Carmody recalled her father's response when customers in shorts asked him if they were dressed appropriately.
He would answer, ''As long as you have your wallet, it doesn't matter how you're dressed.''
He developed a reputation among friends and neighbors for his helpfulness. During winter, he would plow the driveways of at least 10 friends during the seven-mile stretch from his home to the restaurant, Mary Grace Carmody said. He would plow their driveways again on the way home.
When he wasn't holding court in his restaurant, he enjoyed playing gin with friends in his three-car garage equipped with a bar.
Mr. Carmody loved practical jokes. His wife, Janet, recalled his fondness for disguising his voice and impersonating the police. He would call up friends and chide them for making too much noise and disturbing the neighbors, then laugh with delight when he revealed his identity.
He once sabotaged a player's golf bag so that the clubs spilled onto the course when the cart pulled out. An avid golfer, he shot an 84 last September when he discovered that he had cancer.
Mr. Carmody doted on his dogs and his children.
The dogs - a chocolate Labrador retriever named Zachary and a black Labrador named Reggie - rode up front in his Chevy pickup truck. He drove them to ice cream parlors where he treated each to a soft vanilla ice cream cone.
And even when his children were adults, he was not ashamed to hug and kiss them and tell them that he loved them.
Mr. Carmody served in the U.S. Army as the driver for a tank commander at Fort Benning, Ga., and in Germany. He was a member of St. Alphonsus Church in Wexford, the Cranberry Elks Lodge, the Millvale Sportsmen's Club and the Diamond Run Golf Club.
In addition to his mother, Ethel May Carmody of Franklin Park, he is survived by his wife, Janet Puskar Carmody; two sons, Sean of Wexford and Paul of the North Hills; a daughter, Mary Grace Carmody, of Ohio Township; three grandchildren, Caitlin, Erin and Allena Carmody; and three sisters, Eileen Mayer of Gibsonia, Eleanora Delligatti of Fox Chapel and Kathryn Beck of Franklin Park.
Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today in the H.P. Brandt Funeral Home, 1032 Perry Highway, Ross Township. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday in St. Alphonsus Church in Wexford. Burial will be in Allegheny Memorial Park in Allison Park.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, Medical Arts Building, 3708 Fifth Ave., Suite 400, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3427.
