Larry Wolfe
A “Renaissance Man,” or modern-day polymath, is someone who has acquired knowledge, expertise, and proficiency in a wide variety of fields, usually unrelated. To the list of historical figures, such as da Vinci, Galileo, and Aristotle, maybe we should add Alex Santucci.
Here are some of his interests and accomplishments:
• Baseball player and super fan (He’s a longtime D-backs season ticket holder.)
• Softball player (naturally!)
• Golfer (He plays nearly every week and has two holes-in-one.)
• Bowler, with a 300 game!
• Biker (regular bicycles and Harley owner for 30 years)
• Certified scuba diver
• Fitness enthusiast (He met his wife Michelle at LA Fitness.)
• Musician (He plays electric and acoustic guitars.)
• Mr. Fix-it (His father-in-law called him the Maintenance Department!)
• Licensed aircraft mechanic
• Animal naturalist (He’s walked with a tiger in Australia and owns a 60-pound African spurred tortoise!)
• International traveler
I’ve probably left out a few, but you get the point!
The Connecticut native graduated from St. Joseph’s High in Trumbull before earning a bachelor’s degree in aviation maintenance management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s most respected university specializing in aviation and aerospace. He later earned his master’s in operations management.
Alex started his working career at Textron Lycoming as an intern during his last year of college and continued with the company through 2005, although the division he worked for was acquired by Allied Signal, which later merged with Honeywell. He progressed to become a quality engineer, then a quality program manager. In 1996 Allied Signal moved his entire division from Connecticut to Phoenix. After that move, Alex held ever-increasing positions of responsibility, including distribution manager and senior quality engineer. In that latter position, he was responsible for a distribution center in England, which required him to periodically travel there to perform audits, performance appraisal, and meet with customers.
He left Honeywell in 2005 and joined Acme Aerospace in Tempe. He was initially manager of quality assurance, then general manager for that site from 2014 to 2017. Acme was acquired by TransDigm in 2009. When the company decided to manage the Tempe site out of New Jersey in 2017, Alex declined the opportunity to relocate there (duh!) and worked briefly for one of his suppliers before joining L3 Technologies as a senior quality manager. L3 merged with Harris Corporation in 2019 and became L3Harris. Alex was responsible for overall quality assurance, compliance testing, and maintaining the company’s ISO9001 certification. He continued with that company until his retirement in March of 2024, ending his 37-year career in the aviation/aerospace industry.
Alex played some type of softball non-stop from his youth until 2005. After a hiatus of a few years, he played in the Chandler leagues before joining our program last year. Normally a lefty first baseman and pitcher, Alex has been playing in the outfield in our league where his superior speed can be utilized. He quickly became a key member of our program, now serving on our board and managing one of our summer league teams, adding a couple more things to his Renaissance Man list!