Rene James Desany passed away peacefully on April 12, 2024 in his home in Melrose, MA.

Rene was born July 25, 1942, the third oldest of seven boys, to Joseph and Mary Anne (Rainville) Desany in Colchester, VT. After graduation from Rice Memorial High School in 1960, he enlisted in the Air National Guard and went on to complete basic training at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado in 1962.

When his initial enlistment completed in 1966, he moved west to work at Hewlett-Packard in Colorado and Boeing Aircraft in Seattle. In 1969, he returned to Burlington, Vermont to work for Simmons Precision and Air North as an Avionics Technician. Shortly afterwards, he met his lovely wife, Barbara Bouchard, and they married in October, 1971 at Holy Cross Church in Colchester, VT, and initially settled in Essex, Vermont. Their first-born child, Nicholas, was born on Christmas Day in 1972, and a year and a half later, their son, Matthew, was born in July, 1974. In November, 1989, Rene and Barbara welcomed their surprise youngest child, Monique into the Desany fold. After the family moved from Essex to Jericho, Vermont in 1984, Rene returned to the Vermont Air National Guard until his retirement in 2002 as a Master Sergeant.

During his teen years, Rene developed a love of Ham Radio: which included building his own radio equipment and talking to various people around the world (long before the internet and cell phones made it easy!). This passion continued into his adulthood as he worked on his own ham radio projects at home as well as becoming well known for his avionics trouble shooting, finding some of the toughest problems in the many, diverse electronic systems of the F-16 flown by the Vermont Air National Guard. He was known affectionately by his co-workers as "electro-man" and "the badger." A little gruff on the outside, but he knew how to get the job done! After retirement, Rene continued to work on radios and developed a love for classic cars. Never one to sit for long, he always tried to keep himself busy.

Preceding Rene in death are his father and mother, Joseph and Mary Anne Desany and his brother, Andrew.

He is survived by his wife Barbara Desany, and his siblings Anthony, Joseph, Gerry, Peter, and Edmond Desany, as well as his 3 children, Nick Desany, Matt Desany, and Monique Desany Martell. He is also survived by his 10 grandchildren, Joseph , Anthony, Francis, Elizabeth, Amara, Beatrice, Augustine, Molly, Winston, and Penny.

A Funeral Mass will be held at St Mary of the Annunciation Church in Melrose, MA on April 17th at 10am.