If Dominick Paielli hadn’t gone into the family bakery business, he might have become an engineer. It was a career path he had considered until circumstances called him to help run the bakery established in 1923 by his father, Sante Paielli. There he often employed a natural talent for things mechanical, said his family.

“When it came to machinery at the bakery, he was the guy to call in the middle of the night,” said his daughter, Lisa Cremer. “He was very into the engineering of the bakery,” said his son, Greg Paielli. “He was always forward thinking and into automation. A lot of people think you just make doughnuts and bread, but to make the doughnuts and bread, a lot of machinery is involved.”