Louis “Lou” J. LaFontaine, son of Louis and Margaret Loughery LaFontaine, was born in New Haven on May 9, 1935, and passed away suddenly on June 26, 2024, in Hobe Sound, Florida.

Lou grew up alongside his sister Jean in a two-bedroom apartment at 560 Orange Street in New Haven. In addition to Lou’s parents, the Orange Street apartment was also home to Lou’s two aunts, Alexis and Gena, and various other family members who had stints living there as well. Young Lou usually slept on the floor or a couch in the living room, but outside the apartment, he played with friends all over the neighborhood. Young Lou played football and baseball with buddies in the adjacent yard of St. John’s Episcopal Church, whose stained-glass windows were occasionally visited by an errant throw or well-hit line drive that prompted young Lou and his friends to quickly scatter to escape the wrath of the resident pastor. Just down the street, former New York Ranger and Yale hockey coach Murray Murdoch started a youth hockey program at the New Haven Arena, and Lou’s life-long love of hockey was off and running.

Lou excelled in sports, and after his father’s sudden death at the age of 53, Lou spent enough time at his uncle’s home in Hamden to be able to attend and graduate from Hamden High School, which had football, hockey, and baseball teams. After graduating from Hamden High School, Lou was off to Providence College, where he played both baseball and hockey, captaining both teams his senior year; he shared his college years alongside his childhood friend William “Billy” Donohue, who grew up on Cottage Street. Lou met Joan Freed in 1957, and they soon married and together raised daughter Kathryn of Wallingford and son Mark of Hudson, Ohio (wife Darlene), by whom he is survived.

Lou started working in the mailroom at United Technologies in Norwalk and then moved to their human resource department. Lou rose through the ranks at UTC and eventually held executive positions at UTC’s Automotive Group in Dearborn, Michigan, and Otis Elevator in Farmington, Connecticut. After 29 years with UTC, Lou became Senior Vice President at Mack Truck in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Ironically, Lou first drove a Mack truck at age 14, when his father pressed him into service plowing snow for the City of New Haven’s Public Works Department. Some five decades later, Lou was driving a newly constructed Mack off the assembly line at their new manufacturing facility in Winnsboro, South Carolina. Lou finished off his career commuting by train from Southport to the offices of Mutual of New York in Manhattan, then, at age 57, he retired.

Lou and Joan had homes in Branford, at Linden Shores, and in North Palm Beach, Florida. Lou played plenty of golf at Racebrook Country Club in Orange and in North Palm Beach. He also enjoyed having his boat, a 26-foot center console Mako named Sea Boss, right in his backyard. Lou loved taking the Sea Boss out fishing with friends and touring the inland waterways with Joan and the grandkids. They eventually moved to a golf course community in Hobe Sound, Florida. Lou and Joan became grandparents to Kathy’s son Charles Patrick Murray, “Patrick,” who resided with him, and Mark and Darlene’s children, Sam of Kansas City, Missouri; Lucy and Danny, both of Hudson, Ohio. They loved spending time with the grandkids and attending their performances and sporting events. Lou even got involved in coaching youth and high school sports well into his 70s. Players and grandkids alike relished in calling him “Papa;” Lou became everyone’s beloved “Papa.”

Lou loved his family, Providence College, the Yankees, and Florida Panthers, and he loved a good “apizza” at Modern in New Haven or Fantini’s in Stuart, Florida. He and Joan became family at Michelina’s restaurant in Stuart, where a plaque on the wall indicates “Lou and Joan’s Table.” Lou always told people he was lucky, and he always felt blessed to have had the good fortune he had in his life, but the reality was that he worked hard and sacrificed a great deal. Always generous, always positive and upbeat, Lou was simply a good and decent man. When Joan battled lung cancer and COPD, Lou cared for her in every way. Her passing in June of 2022 was difficult, but he soon had a great-granddaughter, Lyla Ann Murray of Port St. Lucie, Florida, to dote over and a rescued pit bull named Blue, who never left his side. Lou liked to tell his kids, his work colleagues, and his players to “be tough, be fair, be good,” and anyone who knew him could attest that he was all those things and so much more.

Calling hours will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13, at W.S. Clancy Memorial Funeral Home, 244 N. Main Street, in Branford. A Memorial Service will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14, at St. George’s Church, 33 Whitfield Street, in Guilford.