Master stonemason Giovanni Sassone wanted to be a doctor or a police officer, and he has a kidding personality that would work in standup comedy. But his masonry career is in his blood. “I am honoring my great-grandfather,” stonemason Salvatore Giovanni Cantera.

When arriving from Abruzzo in 1898, Salvatore brought with him 20 stonemasons, some blood relatives and some cousins in the paesano sense. And he’s honoring his grandmother, Esther Martha Cantera, a businesswoman successful in multiple sectors, including construction.