Teacher, lifelong learner, traveler, beloved aunt and great-aunt

Melisa Catherine Salvato was born in Pomona on June 11, 1957, to Orlando Gregory Salvato and Vittorina Fuduli Salvato. Melisa died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, March 6.

She attended Harrison Elementary School in Pomona, El Roble Intermediate School, Claremont High School, Occidental College, and the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned her teaching credentials in English from Cal Poly Pomona, and French from Cal State Bakersfield. She was an excellent student throughout her academic career and won the top prize at her high school science fair for demonstrating how to separate protein using electrophoresis.

She was a world traveler. In 1978 she visited her relatives in Calabria, Italy, and continued living in Italy for a year, where she traveled widely and held various jobs. When she returned from Italy, she focused on graduating from UCLA with a degree in Italian literature. Future travels took her to other parts of Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean. As a result, she had a global circle of friends and acquaintances with whom she kept in touch, some from her youth.

Most of her career was spent as a French teacher at Downey High School, from 1993 to 2024. During her time there she served as a Fullbright Program Exchange Teacher three times and taught in the French territories of Guadeloupe, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and in the French city of Rouen.

“Melisa was sensitive, independent-minded, inquisitive, humble, and relished her privacy,” her family shared. “She was scrupulously observant and had an infectious sense of humor.”

She attended Catholic masses and particularly enjoyed the Old Latin Rite Mass. She was a lifelong student and profound reader in multiple languages. She particularly enjoyed Italian culture, philosophy and science, though no topic or style of book was off limits. She was interested in science her whole life, and explored alternative health care and therapies.

She loved live theater, often accompanying family members or friends to performances; she was a subscriber to the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles and Shakespeare-by-the-Sea in Long Beach.

“Melisa was compassionate,” her family added. “After her father, Orlando, was paralyzed in an accident, Melisa moved to Claremont to help take care of him and her mother. During that time, she and her father sang in the choir at Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church.”

She resided in the Los Angeles area most of her life, and in Long Beach for the past 30 years, where she enjoyed walks on the beach, yoga, hiking, and exploring the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. She enjoyed time with her nieces and nephews and, more recently, their children.

She never retired from work. She enjoyed her career, her students and her colleagues. But after a breast cancer diagnosis, she began to make plans for retirement that included traveling and study. As her treatment progressed, her diagnoses improved but she ultimately succumbed to cardio-vascular failure.

She is survived by her immediate family, including her sister Maria Stella Salvato (C. David Pauza); sister Victoria Salvato-Lechner (Andrew); brother Gregory Salvato (Nancy); sister Teresa Salvato; and brother Roland Salvato (Malana).

She was a beloved aunt and great-aunt and spent family gathering and outings with her nieces, nephews and their children: Victoria Pauza; Melissa Lechner (Trevor Angell), and great-nieces Sofia and Siena; Andrew Lechner III (Narges Alipanah), and great-nephews Leonel and Aria; Cristina Salvato (Darren Spicer), and great-niece Mia, great-nephew Rowan; Michael Salvato (Johanna), and great-niece Sloane and great-nephew Mason; Nicholas Salvato (Elizabeth), and great-nephew Theodore; Lia Mansfield (Joel-Henry), and great-nephew John-Marshall; Sofia DeMarco (Julian Lucas), and great-nieces Winry and Tessa.

She was preceded in death by her parents.

The family wishes to thank the caring medical team headed by Dr. Daphne Stewart at the Keck Medical Center in Los Angeles.

A Mass was held March 19 at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Claremont.

A celebration of life will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 29 at Heritage-Dilday Mortuary, 17911 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, CA 92647. This memorial will include a prayer service, and an opportunity to share memories. Refreshments will be served.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her name may be made to the Bolsa Chica Conservancy at bolsachica.charityproud.org/Donate, or by check to 3842 Warner Ave., Huntington Beach, CA 92649, tax ID #33-0392527.