Paul “Staf” Stafilarakis was born in Springfield on May 7, 1968, to Carmella and John Stafilarakis. Sadly, Paul passed away unexpectedly at his home in Ashfield on March 8, 2023. He was predeceased by his parents, aunts, uncles and his sister, Mary Kay (Vear), who passed away in December of 2022. Paul is survived by his brother Jim (Peg), John (Donna) and brother- in- law Robert. He was the uncle of many nieces and nephews including Christina Vear-Walter, Cara Lemay, Elaina Stafilarakis, Drew Stafilarakis, Tony Stafilarakis, John Stafilarakis, Joe Stafilarakis and Gina Landolfi. Paul was great uncle to Jayden Walter, Matthew and Alivia LeMay, Noah Varady and Gabriella and Joey Landolfi. He also leaves many cousins and friends who will also remember him with fondness and love.
Paul graduated from Putnam High School, where he studied the trades. Paul worked for the City of Springfield, Massachusetts as a diesel mechanic and worked on carpentry projects for family and friends in his spare time.
Paul is remembered for his love of living with and training canines; he was the family “dog whisperer”. Many of us have enjoyed better behaved animals because of Paul’s training in how to lead them. He leaves his canine companion Zacharias (Zach) and Miss Kitty in loving homes.
Paul was an accomplished carpenter and mechanic who always had many projects in process or in the planning stages. He loved to take trucks, cars, motorcycles and anything mechanical apart to see how they worked and challenge himself to see if he could rebuild them to improve performance. Projects were not always put back together in the same decade they were taken apart, but usually when Paul’s redesigns were done, he’d accomplished his mission.
Paul loved to hunt, fish and enjoy the outdoors; something he learned from his father, John. He thoroughly enjoyed his family’s cooking creations on both the Italian and Greek sides. We hope he is enjoying a huge plate of his mom Carmella’s gnocchi with Bolognese sauce with Aunt Lula’s baklava for dessert!
Paul’s family would be grateful if you could remember him with a smile today and if you could, share your favorite memory of him with us.
New England Funeral & Cremation Center, LLC, 25 Mill Street, Springfield, MA has been entrusted with the arrangements. Please visit Paul’s memorial page at
www.nefcc.net
for expressions of sympathy.
To send a flower arrangement or to plant trees in memory of
Paul Stafilarakis.