In the early morning of Ash Wednesday 2025, Alfred Osvaldo “Al” Puntel fell into God’s loving embrace at the age of 73, having lived with Parkinson’s since his retirement from La Salle College High School in 2015. His journey as a husband, father, teacher and friend leaves a legacy of deep faith in God’s mercy and overflowing love.
Al was a first generation American, the only son of two Italian immigrants. He spoke two dialects of Italian at home — Abruzzese with his mother, Giustina, and Friulian with his dad, Matteo, and grandfather. He was affectionately called Dino by his family. Dino learned early on how to lay bricks, make wine, stake tomatoes, do carpentry, cook and other handiwork with his grandfather and mother. He attended Holy Cross Elementary School and Cardinal Dougherty High School, where he later taught, and was active in the Community Service Corps (C.S.C.) of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Al met Betsy (née Elizabeth Fauerbach), his wife of 49 years, in the C.S.C., under the leadership of now Msgr. F.X. Schmidt, with whom they have kept a lifelong friendship. Al and Betsy first met on the Staten Island Ferry on a C.S.C. field trip to meet Dorothy Day. In January of this year, Betsy shared her adapted version of “Jenny Kiss’d Me” with Al, and called it “Al Kiss’d Me,” and they both felt the poem captured something real about their marriage and the joy and Providence that was at its heart:
Betsy kiss’d me when we met,
Jumping up from the chair she sat in,
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss’d me,
Say I’m growing old, but add
Betsy kiss’d me.
Al graduated from Catholic University in 1974 and married Betsy on August 16, 1975, in Oklahoma, where they were serving in several parishes in religious education work. Al and Betsy moved to Germantown in Philadelphia and met the Vincentians in the parishes there — and continued an enduring relationship at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
With Betsy, Al was an advocate for fair housing, neighborhood community, active in the peace movement, and members of Weaver’s Way Food Co-op. They worked in the 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia with Father Ed Brady, S.J., who organized and educated to the “source and summit” of the Eucharist, connecting the graces of that life to the “Hunger for Bread.” Two months later, they were blessed by the birth of their first child, and their vocation to marriage and family began to give new horizons to their lives.
After the birth of Al and Betsy’s third child, they moved to share Al’s parents’ home — with separate kitchens. (His mom’s cooking smells were incredible!) Intergenerational living and mutual care were part of the “Italian” Al brought to the Puntel family. Betsy’s mom and dad also benefited from this, as did Al and Betsy’s children. Al and Betsy thought it important for Betsy to be home with the kids. He was Betsy’s best advocate and support for her Catechesis of the Good Shepherd work, making so many of the wooden materials by hand, and later becoming certified in two levels of the program (with Betsy as his formation leader!).
Al taught high school boys Catholic faith and moral teaching for 40 heroic years. He worked with the Christian Brothers at St. Gabriel’s Hall for Adjudicated Delinquents for five years, and then at La Salle College High School for 33 years — many as the Religion Department chairperson. St. John Baptist de La Salle, the patron saint of teachers, listed the virtues of a Lasallian teacher as humility, patience, prudence, gentleness, vigilance, piety, zeal, generosity and wisdom. Al strove to live these virtues. He counseled teaching “to the heart.” Besides teaching, Al introduced the C.S.C., the first service program at La Salle. He directed the Trieste House outreach to men living with disabilities at the Brothers of Charity Home. For a few years he assisted Pat Devine, the cross-country coach. Al invited his students to “Live Jesus in our hearts forever.”Many of the present-day La Salle College High School teachers and some administrators who were his students speak of him with great affection and respect. Al himself loved to learn both formally and informally; he gained two master’s degrees — a pontifical degree from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and a master’s in education from La Salle College.
Al and Betsy had six children, Christina (Mark Badstubner), Susanna, Andrew (the late Guna Pantele), Maria (Kevin) Kurtz, Rose and Jeremy, with whom Al spent a lot of time. He was an only child who fell in love with his children one by one. Summers he did the house repairs and chopped wood for the winter. Al supported nurturing his children’s talents, their care for one another, appreciation of their faith, praying together, care for creation, good food and learning to say, “I’m sorry.”
Nurtured by daily Eucharist, daily prayer and the prayers of others, and Betsy’s tender loving care, Al faced the challenges of Parkinson’s disease and other serious physical impairments. He lost his ability to work with his hands well, speak clearly and swallow, but dedicated himself daily to being active and to his speech and swallowing exercises without ever complaining. Betsy was blessed by his deep love for her and his patience as she in turn blessed him with her “nursing” care.
St. Therese, with her “advocate” Brother Joe Schmidt, F.S.C., was a tremendous influence for Al. Some years before his Parkinson’s illness, Al began to grow in St. Therese’s “little virtues” and remembered the Twelve Step Program’s lesson: “When we are weak, He can be strong.” Al handed his ultimate weakness over to the Lord when he died early on Ash Wednesday morning. Al accepted his impairments and suffering as a help to his desire for holiness, and we are confident he is now experiencing unimpeded joy with the Lord, whose will and presence became Al’s greatest desire. The mercy of God hears the prayers of our hearts and gives us infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
In his later years, Al was supported in a special way by the joy of spending time with his grandchildren, Jonah, Gabriela, Mateo, Ava, Grady, Joel, and his “adopted” grandson, Asai Hagan-Cruz. He also enjoyed the family pets, especially Winston and Samwise and Mowgli. Al’s grandchildren knew him as someone who approached each day with grace, never letting his struggles define him. His quiet perseverance will be remembered by all who knew him. The family thanks all those friends who were such an important network of care and prayer, particularly in Al’s last months.
Nothing is impossible with God. Good work, Al! Thanks for lighting the way.
We invite you to join us for the Mass of Christian Burial at Our Mother of Consolation Church at 9 E Chestnut Hill Ave., Philadelphia, 19118, at 10 a.m., on Saturday, 15 March. The family will receive visitors from 9 a.m.-10 a.m., before the service. Burial will be at St. Matthew’s Cemetery in Conshohocken, with repast to follow at St. Matthew’s Parish Hall.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donations in Al’s memory to Catholic Near East Welfare Association(https://cnewa.org/donate/).
A longtime donor of CNEWA, a note he wrote accompanying one of his last donations said, “May the good Lord sustain you in your presence and care for these people.”