Vince Naimoli obit

First Tampa Bay Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli dies at 81

 He was not on the list.

The original owner of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Vince Naimoli, has passed away at the age of 81, the team confirms.

On March 9, 1995 he helped secure Tampa Bay's long-awaited MLB franchise.

He was voted 1995 Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in the "turnaround" category and received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations in 1999.

One of four children of a second-generation Italian immigrant who worked for the New York subway system and became a self-taught stationary engineer, Naimoli graduated from Notre Dame in 1959 out of Paterson Central High School.

Naimoli sold the franchise to a group led by Stuart Sternberg in 2004. Sternberg still owns the team today (now just the Rays).

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Naimoli was diagnosed in fall of 2014 with the brain disorder Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and his health had been in decline since.

Naimoli's father was an Italian immigrant who worked for the New York City Subway system and became a self-taught stationary engineer. Naimoli was born in Paterson, New Jersey and attended Paterson Central High School. He attended the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 1959 and earning a master's degree in mechanical engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1962. Naimoli received a Master of Business Administration degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1964, and attended Harvard Business School's six-week advanced management program in 1974.

Until the end of his life, Naimoli attended Fighting Irish athletic events regularly. Naimoli has three daughters from his first marriage, and one daughter from his second marriage.

Naimoli was a member of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Board of Trustees. The Naimoli Family Baseball Complex on the Metropolitan Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University was dedicated on October 5, 2011.