Nick Meninno, owner and founder of Meninno Construction, died on Dec. 17. He was known for his love of the city of Lynn and for his generosity. A memorial service celebrating his life and legacy was held on Dec. 30.
Meninno was born in 1934 during the Great Depression alongside his fraternal twin sister, Gloria Santangelo. Although he and his sister shared many things in common, they often had different interests.
“He was happier doing hands-on projects with my father,” Santangelo said. “My brother was always downstairs in the basement, working with his tools, and I was more interested in books and reading and doing well in school.”
In elementary school, Meninno and Santangelo were separated into different classrooms because Santangelo helped Meninno with his work. “I liked school, and I went on to UMass and became a teacher,” she said. “He did not. He was much more happy when he was active and moving.”
When Meninno graduated high school, he began working with his father, Nicholas, as a carpenter and builder before eventually opening Meninno Construction.
The construction company is a family business, which Meninno’s children and grandchildren have helped build into the company it is today. Meninno’s son — also named Nick after his father and grandfather — took over the business 30 years ago, then employing only about eight workers. Now, more than 50 employees work for the company.
“I guess it’s in our DNA. We’ve been around it our whole lives,” said Nick.
Nick draws daily on the great work ethic his father instilled in him. He strives to pass his father’s value onto his own son, Nicholas Jr., and to his employees.
“We still have relationships with people he developed 40, 50 years ago. That kind of relationship with developers and builders, general contractors means a lot to me. People we were doing work for 50 or 60 years ago, we are still doing work for them. And to me, that’s a testament of the quality of work that we do and the type of company that we are, and I hope that I can continue to say that and my son 20, 30,40 years from now can say the same thing,” he said.
Meninno was known for doing favors without expecting anything in return.
“In my early days, when I was pretty much broke, trying to get the business started, he was the one who paid the mortgage for three months,” said David Solimine, funeral director and founder of Solimine Funeral Homes in Lynn.
Solimine and Meninno were best friends starting in junior high school. They served together in the National Guard for six years and stood up as best men at each other’s weddings. “It’s golden when you have a friend like that. You don’t find them every day,” said Solimine.
Solimine and Meninno were members of the Knights of Columbus in Lynn, where Meninno was awarded Knight of the Year and served as president of the Valladolid Building Association.
The Rev. George Tsoukalas, retired pastor of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Lynn, recalled Meninno’s generosity, including the time Meninno helped find —and pay to furnish — an apartment for a family of four who planned to move to Lynn permanently.
“We had a two-week notice, and he and I went around checking the list of apartments available through the city,” said Tsoukalas. “But that was Nick — he didn’t distinguish,” he added.
Through out the years, Meninno worked on many projects that he was proud of, including the construction of the new Market Basket built in Lynn in 2017 and the rebuilding of old neighborhoods in Lynn and Danvers.
Meninno was looking forward to the upgrades at Barry Park in Lynn, including the demolition of the concrete bleachers and the rebuilding of a portion of the field.
He was also well known in Lynn for his decades of service building city sidewalks and plowing snow from business properties and Lynn Public School lots.
“If somebody was going through a tough time and he happened to know or hear about it, he delivered bags of food, making sure that they had what they needed,” said Cheryl Meninno, Meninno’s daughter, who was born when her father was 20.
“We always laughed because we say to dad, food was love … and love was food,” Cheryl Meninno said.
Even after his retirement 28 years ago, Meninno remained a presence in the company bearing his family name. He visited job sites on a daily basis to show support, run errands, and bring coffee and lunch to the crew.
“He was a wonderful dad and a terrific mentor and a fair and generous boss,” said his son, Nick.
Meninno married Margaret “Peggy” (Grant) Meninno, and together they had six children. Their children gave the couple 11 grandchildren who plan to continue Meninno’s legacy of building strong relationships while doing high-quality work.
