Luigi Ruffalo, a barber with a commanding head of hair, came to the United States from Italy in 1960 and changed his name to Louis.
He was 28, and, within a few years, he opened a barber shop in Lake Forest.
The style requested by mothers of young boys at the time was known as the John-John Haircut — named after the son of former President John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Ruffolo had a knack for it and offered a lollipop for a triumphant turn in his chair.
He wasn’t a huge fan of the the shaggy-headed Beatles who influenced American kids to keep their hair long. It wasn’t good for business.
When Robert Redford sat in his chair in 1980 while in town directing the film “Ordinary People,” his assistants fretted about any harm that might come to his golden locks. Mr. Ruffolo just cleaned up his neck line a little bit.
His work space was sparse, a television tuned to sports or news, and a picture of Mr. Ruffalo cutting the hair of his 1-year-old daughter, Mary.
In the 1980s, Mr. Ruffolo — who went by Lou — moved to a spot inside Lake Forest’s historic train station to the delight of thousands of Metra commuters.
Mr. Ruffalo, who for years charged $18 for a haircut, had customers from all walks of life. He counted many as friends. He retired in 2018.
“He had customers who came to him for years, and their kids grew up and came to him, too, and there was just great respect for Lou,” said Michael Ebner, a retired professor who taught American History at Lake Forest College.
“When Lou needed advice on something, he knew who to talk to amongst his customers, maybe a lawyer, a banker, or a doctor, and those customers were only too pleased to answer Lou’s questions,” he said. “He once asked me when his two daughters were in high school ‘Mike, what’s the business with these SAT tests?’ And I explained to him how important that was.”
Mr. Ruffalo died June 8 from natural causes, days shy of his 91st birthday.
His daughter Mary Rauch became an attorney. His daughter Ivana Ruffolo became a physician who specializes in internal medicine and cares for several family members of some of her father’s old customers.
When Ivana did rotations at Cook County Hospital as a medical student, Mr. Ruffolo would share with his customers how nervous he was to have his daughter surrounded by the daily violence of gunshot and stab wound victims that doctors at the hospital encounter, his daughters recalled.
“He was very, very proud of his daughters. They fulfilled the American Dream, and he was proud that his grandkids were going off to universities, as well,” Ebner said.
Mr. Ruffolo learned how to cut hair while serving in the Italian army.
He met his future wife, Dora, in Italy and the two fell in love while going on chaperoned walks. He returned to Italy two years after arriving in the United States to marry her and bring her back to his newly adopted country.
“He came here with no money, didn’t know the language, went to school at night to learn English, went to school to become a certified barber, and then he took a shot at opening and building a business. He’s our role model,” his daughter Ivana Ruffolo said.
“Talk about coming here to give your kids a better opportunity,” his daughter Mary Rauch marveled.
Mr. Ruffolo came to the United States with his parents and two siblings, Leo and Theresa. They settled in southern Wisconsin before Mr. Ruffolo made his way south to open a business.
His favorite meal was always his wife’s lasagna. “Not anybody else’s lasagna,” Ivana Ruffolo said with a laugh.
He loved tending to his vegetable garden and soccer, especially his favorite Italian teams A.S. Roma and S.S.C. Napoli, and was blessed with great hair.
“His hairline was like a 9 year old,” Rauch said.
“It was almost divine intervention that he had this full head of hair,” Ebner said.
He ordered special grapes to crush at home to make his own wine. His daughters made him a label — Luigi Ruffolo’s Classico Paisano — that showed Mr. Ruffolo as a young man with three of his pals.
“He’s going to be missed by a lot of people,” said Tiffany Goebel, a barber who worked the other chair in Mr. Ruffolo’s shop for several years before he retired. She bought and renamed the business Silver Lining Barber Shop.
“Everybody knew Lou, always with a smile on his face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that man upset,” she said.
In addition to his two daughters, Mr. Ruffolo is survived by his siblings, his wife, Dora, and two grandchildren.
