Michael Charles Napoli, Sr. of Monroe, Louisiana passed peacefully in his home on Sunday, May 16, 2021. With his loving and dedicated wife of fifty years, Margaret Shirley Napoli, and his four children by his side, he moved on to his greater life as the sun fell below the horizon. He was 89 years old. A memorial service to celebrate his life will take place at Kilpatrick Funeral Home on Lamy Lane on Sunday, May 23 at 1:00pm. Visitation will be on Saturday, May 22 at Kilpatrick at 4:00-6:00pm.

Mike, as he was known to his friends, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 18, 1932. He loved to recount stories of his youth in the Crescent City, and enjoyed making mischief in the French Quarter with his cousins and making groceries in the French Market with his mother. The house where he lived on Esplanade Avenue still stands.

Mike moved to Oberlin, Louisiana as a teenager where he graduated from Oberlin High School. He played six-man football, was the shortest freshman on the basketball team, and loved to remind his children that he was a track star. He lettered in all sports and was rarely distracted by the classroom.

After starting college at McNeese State University, Mike proudly enrolled in the United States Navy. He was stationed in Oakland and served in the Korean War during the early 1950’s as a hospital corpsman, saving many Navy and Marine lives. This experience served as material for some of Mike’s greatest storytelling, for which he had a great talent. It also led Mike to choose a life of service through a medical career that would span the next several decades of his life.

After his honorable discharge from the Navy, Mike enrolled in Northeast Louisiana University, now ULM, where he was a member of the first graduating class of the School of Pharmacy in 1956. After receiving his Doctor of Pharmacy, Mike served as the Head of Pharmacy at St. Francis Hospital, where he made lifelong friends and met his true love, Shirley, where she worked as a medical technologist. Mike loved to recall how their departments were joined by a door, through which he would constantly look in on her. The last time he told that story, he stated, “I fell in love with her the moment I met her.”

Mike opened Town & Country Pharmacy on November 20 in 1972. He befriended and selflessly cared for everyone who walked through his door. While serving as neighborhood pharmacist, Mike made countless, meaningful friendships and treated all his patients like family. He not only dispensed medication, he dispensed advice, love, and assistance freely. He loved caring for his community in this capacity. He always enjoyed when his children and their friends stopped for a Coke from his vintage Coca-Cola machine on their way home from Jack Hayes School. Mike the Pharmacist was an icon in Town & Country, and he was loved and respected. With a heavy heart, he reluctantly retired and closed his doors in the summer of 2000.

Mike lived a full life. He enjoyed photography and was often heard calling, “Hold still! 1…2..3…3 and a half…” He was an avid gardener and loved watching his tomatoes, cucumbers, and children grow. He was a dedicated member of North Monroe Baptist Church, where he and Shirley raised their children to have a strong faith. In his later years, he returned to his Catholic faith and was a parishioner at Our Lady of Fatima Church, where he first attended as a young man in pharmacy school.

Mike loved to make people laugh and had always had time for a joke. He was an epic storyteller, and knew how to spin a memorable–and often embellished–tale. He never tired of recalling the treasured memories he made during his 89 years. He made people feel comfortable and cared for. His greatest pride was the family he built with his wife. To his last day, he embodied the final instructions he gave to his children: “Live your life so that everyone knows that you love Jesus.”

Mike is preceded in death by his parents, Eleanor Mary Wooster Templet and Carlo Walter Napoli. He is survived by his beloved wife, Margaret Shirley Cooper Napoli, and his children Michael Charles Napoli, Jr. and wife Gretchen, Mark Cooper Napoli and wife Wendy, Mary Margaret Napoli and husband Adam Ryland, and Matthew Clark Napoli and wife Nicole. Mike’s children adored and respected their father and never doubted his steadfast, unconditional love for them. He will be missed by his grandchildren, who held him on a high pedestal: Arden Brooks Napoli, Cooper Cameron Napoli, Jake Chapel Napoli, Gabriella Rose Napoli, Lila Iris Napoli, Ivy Margaret Napoli, Eleanor Marie Napoli, and Abigail Margaret Napoli. His final days were peaceful, and he was surrounded by loving family.

To quote from Angelo Patri’s statement about a loved one, “In one sense there is no death. The life of a soul on Earth lasts beyond his departure. You will always feel that life touching yours, that voice speaking to you, that spirit looking out of other eyes, talking to you in the familiar things he touched, worked with, loved, as familiar friends. He lives on in your life and in the lives of all others that knew him.”  Friends will remember him for his warm smile, honest handshake, and the love he gave without hesitation. It was a true blessing to be a part of such a great man’s life. Mike will forever occupy a special place in our hearts, and we will cherish his memory always. He made a mark on his community. Mike was a good man.

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home in Monroe, or you may pay tribute to Mike with an act of selfless kindness to your neighbor, as he would have done.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.kilpatrickfuneralhomes.com.