Gabriele Abbondanza

Osvaldo Abbondanza

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Osvaldo Abbondanza (1921-2006), my paternal grandfather, was an Italian executive and engineer in the fields of security and defence. Earlier in his life, he had been a republican partisan during Italy's 1943-1945 civil war - erupted after the Italian armistice in World War II - a decorated officer in the Italian Navy, and later the patent holder and inventor of the Rotary Keyboard Punching Machine.

 

As an executive in the fields of security and defence, he was part of the team that established Selenia, a large state-owned defence company, which he later run as Director General. In 1977 he was appointed CEO of Fincantieri, one of the largest military-civil shipbuilders in the world. Unfortunately he could not accept the new role due to an unexpected illness, which forced him to retire from public life. He lived a long and serene life with his family thereafter.

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In 2021, an edited volume on notable people born in Cesena was published with a chapter on him. You can read it (in Italian) and download it HERE.

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