Italian American Digest Winter Digest 2018 | Page 7

Italian American Digest
PAGE 7
WINTER 2018
2019 LAISHF Honorees
Meeting, California Dental Meet-
ing (Anahiem) and the InvisAlign
GP Summit in Las Vegas.
He is certified in a number of
new dental technologies, such as
Durathin Veneers, Oral Conscious
Sedation (Sleep Dentistry), the
Cerec 3D CAD-CAM system for
in office ceramic restorations,
KoR Whitening (Deep Bleaching
System) and 6 Month Smiles and
Invisalign Orthodontics.
Dr. Jon Celino is an
alumnus of the Gordon Chris-
tensen Mentorship Program
at The Scottsdale Center for
Dentistry, where he completed
advanced training in all aspects
of General Dentistry. He has
also completed Dentox’s 3 Part
Course on Botox, Restylane,
Juvaderm and Redexis to help
enhance the final Smile Design
on patients who need such ser-
vices.
He is a member of the American
Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry,
the American Dental Association,
the Louisiana Dental Association,
the New Orleans Dental Asso-
ciation, the Academy for Sports
Dentistry, the American Academy
of Cosmetic Orthodontics and he
is a Crown Council Dentist.
Born in San Diego, he has been
living in New Orleans for over 40
years. He has a son, Austin, and a
daughter, Elise. He practices
dentistry at Fleur De Lis Dental
Care in New Orleans.
LOCAL INDUCTEE
GAYLE BATTAGLIA
CALATO
G
ayle Battaglia Calato, the
daughter of Ina and Joseph
Battaglia, is a New Orleans native
and a lifelong resident of the
metropolitan area. Having four
brothers, she was accustomed
to playing active and competitive
games from a young age.
Calato graduated in 1969 from
Archbishop Chapelle High School
and furthered her education at the
University of New Orleans with
a Bachelor of Science degree
in chemistry. Upon graduation
in 1973, Calato was hired by the
Jefferson Parish Public School
System as a science teacher and
began her teaching career at then
all-girls Grace King High School.
A year later, Calato applied for and
was selected as junior varsity girls
basketball coach of the newly
established team.
In 1977, when Jefferson Parish
high schools transitioned to coed,
Calato was transferred to the pre-
viously all-boys school, Bonnabel
High School. She was selected
as the first varsity girls basketball
coach of Bonnabel High School’s
Lady Bruins.
Calato built the program to
become one of the district’s, and
even the state’s, best. In eight
years of coaching, Calato’s Lady
Bruins amassed a remarkable
record of 181 wins to only 46
losses, made five trips to the
LHSAA State Final Four tourna-
ment, won the AAAA State Cham-
pionship in 1982, and finished as
state runner-up twice. She was
named as the Louisiana Sports
Writers State Coach of the Year in
1981 and served as the State All-
Star Games coach in 1982.
Bonnabel’s state championship
title in 1982 was the first for a girls’
team from the New Orleans area.
Calato credits much of her suc-
cess to the talented athletes’ hard
work, commitment, and team-
work.
Calato reluctantly retired from
coaching after her eighth season
in 1985 in order to spend more
time with her husband, Louis.
The couple has one daughter and
a grandson. Gayle is presently
enjoying retirement but continues
to keep busy with volunteering
at Second Harvest Food Bank,
singing in St. Benilde’s Contem-
porary Choir, traveling, gardening,
tutoring chemistry, and mentor-
ing STEM teachers. Despite the
plethora of activities and titles,
she lovingly admits that her favor-
ite is the blessed gift of being a
grandmother.
LOCAL INDUCTEE
PAUL CANDIES
P
aul Candies, who passed
away in 2013 at the age of 72,
was a small-town boy from Des
Allemands, Louisiana. He was an
entrepreneur who helped grow
Otto Candies LLC from a one-
boat business into one of the
largest marine transportation
companies in the country. Today’s
company has a fleet of more than
40 boats in the U.S. and abroad,
including a vessel named for Paul
Candies. He also helped build
another of his dad’s legacies, the
International Grand Isle Tarpon
Rodeo.
The company has been based
in Des Allemands since Otto B.
Candies founded it in 1942. Paul,
his son, became its president and
COO, leading the business with
his brothers, Otto Jr. and Kevin.
It remains a family business, and
many of the ships in the fleet were
named after members of the fam-
ily. The company, which started in
marine transportation, now builds
boats at a Houma shipyard the
Candies own.
Paul Candies may have made
his fortune on the water, but he
earned his fame on land with a
bunch of really fast cars. In his
“spare” time, Candies became
part of one of the most success-
ful drag racing partnerships in
history— Candies and Hughes
(Leonard Hughes, the other half
of the tandem, being the one-time
driver who kept the engines run-
ning). The name is emblazoned in
signature gold leaf on stock cars,
funny cars and dragsters, as well
as the trucks and trailers used to