Thomas Bozzuto and Barbara Mancinelli, born six months apart, grew up in hardworking Italian American families in Waterbury, Connecticut, but it’s not like they were childhood sweethearts. He was a public school kid who became captain of his high school football team.

She went to Catholic school, a self-described music nerd who studied piano. They didn’t know each other until after both had gone off to separate colleges. They dated, but only briefly because Tom had been drafted into the Army for wartime service; he went to Vietnam in October 1969.