Ottavio Forte, Renaissance Man

By Fred Bouchard

Tireless energy, intelligence, and curiosity mark the life and times of Ottavio Forte. Now in his 80s, he has enjoyed success in a colorful array of careers and hobbies: electrical engineer, beekeeper, sculptor, winemaker, distiller, gardener, and homespun philosopher. 

Born in Formia (near Naples) in 1940, Forte came to New York at 14, the eighth child of illiterate, hard-working parents. As a high school senior, he claimed second prize in the Brooklyn Science Fair for a model of a vacuum tube. Forte graduated from City College of New York in 1961 in engineering. MIT hired him in 1963 to work on the Apollo Program, in human factors and simulation. He studied and taught at MIT, and was married in Eero Saarinen’s magnificent cylindrical brick chapel. “The bronze metal altarpiece was made by Italian-born sculptor Harry Bertoia,” he notes with pride. 

When Draper Labs was designing the guidance system for Trident missiles, Forte was responsible for an innovative two-way communication system (analog to digital interface, aka ADDAC) between guidance and autopilot.

In retirement, he taught spectroscopy and edited books at Boston College, and dug in with his many hobbies. He’s since logged seven years teaching craft shops (metal, welding, woodworking, automotive) at Minuteman Tech in Lexington, and sub-teaching a wide range of classes at Lexington High School.

Affable, jocular, and hospitable, Forte marches to his own drum, at a quick-step pace. Feverishly busy, he handles several projects with effortless relish, more so since recently retiring from teaching at Minuteman. He’s incurably inquisitive: when I first rang his bell he was tinkering with an opened Dell laptop, manipulating tiny Phillips screws with a toothpick screwdriver and no visual aids. 

Apiculture

Forte has kept three or four beehives in his Winn Street yard since 1991, and is thus a nominal godfather to the town’s honey-harvesting consortium. His bees are of Italian stock, typically the best for honey. “They’re industrious, social, non-aggressive, and productive—just like the Italians!” he quips, seated at a picnic table in his shady, bird-frequented yard. Last year, his bees produced 180 pounds of honey, which he bottles and sells with his homemade label, “Belmont Flowers.” Fellow beekeeper Phil Thomas adds: “Ottavio is a recognized, knowledgeable beekeeper, who’s liked and admired in the local beekeeping community. He is creative, a bit eclectic at times, a lovable person!”

BCF

What attracts you to keep bees?

Forte

Once I explained it: “Bees are my pets. Many people have dogs for pets. Bees make honey; what do dogs make?” Each hive can hold up to 60,000 bees. But these bees are never purebred. I hosted a gathering of the Middlesex Beekeepers Association last summer, and will host one again in August. I show and tell and lecture; they love it.

Metal sculptor

Forte’s Winn Street yard looks like a mini De Cordova sculpture park. He’s gradually forested his back and front yards with a fascinating array of original painted steel and aluminum sculptures: mobiles, chimes, ingenious images of nail-finned fishes, birds and bees with whirling wings. He offers a tour with professorial enthusiasm, wielding a pointer to emphasize the structural niceties of complex engineering problems solved with techniques like surface-mounted bases (for easy transportation) and pin-point spot-welding. Some are brushpainted white or silver, and most have accents of primary colors. Each work has its name and back-story.

“Pompous Pompeo,” a six-foot Emperor Penguin with a glass eye and big pink feet, is named after the Roman general who dared to cross Julius Caesar.

“Miss Big-heart,” a perfectly symmetrical 10-foot human form with pigtails and arms in a heart-shaped embrace, was created by fellow welding students at Minuteman High School.

“Standing Tall,” a gracefully angled tree artfully composed of large and small acute white triangles, is topped with a wispy crown of wire. Forte painstakingly replaced its original blue wire with yellow, an aesthetic decision that improved its visibility by day and night.

Commanding the backyard stands a tall multi-armed mobile made up of concentric steel circles, precision-cut by machine from computer files, balanced on swivel bearings to maximize wind motion, and Rustoleum-painted with Italy’s tricolore flag colors of green, white, red.

Forte’s sculptures delineate history, both that of his own family, and the wider world. A spray of metal flowers with whirling color-coded blossoms called “Family Flowers” depicts his nuclear family as a bouquet: his ex-wife, his two children—Carla’s a professional artist and Paolo’s an electrical engineer —and two grandchildren. By his front door a newly created bell chime with blue-over-yellow circles commemorates the Ukrainian nation’s recent call to arms.

BCF

Does your sculptural style owe influence to classicists like Calder or Moore?

Forte

Not really. But I’ve sculpted two of Picasso’s famous drawings: a white dove with olive branch and a yellow steel bull.(Both 5-foot wire forms grace the facade of his Claflin Street frontage.  The bull, [1945, final state] sports a frequent Forte hallmark: a jaunty red bow tie.)

Gardener

Forte’s corner property boasts two vegetable gardens. He tended flats of spring seedlings in pots: San Marzano tomato, zucchini, sunflowers, basil. He then planted two 5 x 20’ rabbit-proof chicken-wired plots with several vegetables. He explains, “I start from seeds: basil, pepper, pumpkin, parsley, and then give some away on Facebook Green Belmont. I gave up on flowers. Everything’s fenced in from the rabbits. I’ll post pea and bean trellises this week. Buy seeds? No! I pot peas and beans that I eat.”

BCF

You’re into cooking, too?

Forte

Monday I fried fish and potatoes with my son. I haven’t bought a loaf of bread in years: I bake my own. For big parties in my back yard, I used to make pizza pomodoro with fresh garden tomatoes baked in an outdoor electric oven.

Cellarmaster

Nurturing a lifelong appreciation for fine beverages, Forte vinifies his own house ‘Chianti’ from traditional Sangiovese grapes. He uses the leftover pomace (and that of friend and fellow-winemaker Joe Magno) to distill liqueuers in his cellar. Some of them are: dandelion aperitif, limoncello, amaretto, “Bel-mint,” and a mead brandy with honey from his yard hives. He also distills a pleasing (35%) grappa from grape must, lightly flavored with rue. 

BCF

You remember your early years as an immigrant vividly, and with pride. What do you have to say to today’s new wave arriving at the borders?

Forte

Today’s new arrivals, as a distinguishable class of their own, are equipped with the same drive to move up from zero as previous generations. All I have to do is lock eyes with them, tell them that I am an immigrant too, and they know what to do!

On the board of Belmont Media Center, Forte has made several videos about beekeeping and distillation in their archive: www.belmontmedia.org/search/node/beekeeping.

Fred Bouchard is a Belmont resident and member of the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter committee.