Kent Taaffe Ficarra, age 82, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and friends on July 11th, 2023 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, due to a hemorrhagic stroke in the pons region of the brain.
Born on September 5th, 1940 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, Kent grew up in Brooklyn and Mt. Vernon. He graduated from Iona Preparatory High School in 1958. The following year, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, initially serving in Korea. Shortly afterwards, he was reassigned to Vietnam, tasked with analyzing and summarizing intercepted transmissions as a cryptologist in Army Intelligence, and earned the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and two overseas service bars.
In the course of his military career, Army intelligence sent him to study Communist ideology at the Sorbonne University in Paris. He was deployed in Turkey to intercept and analyze transmissions and data collected behind the Iron Curtain. Finally, he was transferred to Mexico to evaluate Communist activity in South America.
On December 31st, 1975 Kent resigned from his commission as a Captain with an honorable discharge. The Vietnam War had taken a heavy toll on him psychologically, but he retained an abiding interest in politics and economics for the rest of his life, defining himself as a political consultant.
After the Army, he took a wide range of odd jobs, settling on driving taxi cabs in New York City. In 1985, he moved down to Pompano Beach, Florida where he studied law and made an unsuccessful bid for election as District 3 Commissioner for Broward County. Thereafter, he landed a spot as a political talk show host for a local radio station, an experience he described as one of the happiest moments in his life.
Kent loved to talk about politics, identifying as a socialist Democrat and an expert in Keynesian economics. He spent most of his free time following political news, offering advice to local and state representatives, and lobbying for animal rights and safeguarding the environment.
In the wake of hurricane Katrina in 2005, Kent left Florida for Eagan, Minnesota which he used as a base for visiting many local county fairs and historical landmarks. He took pictures of everything and dabbled extensively in photography and photo editing. Until 2020, he worked as a driver for TLC Special Transportation, often befriending his clients and dedicating his personal time and money to help them out.
Kent Ficarra is preceded in death by his parents, Francis and Aileen (Taaffe) Ficarra, and his sister, Adrienne (Ficarra) Montillet. He is survived by his sisters, Hilary (Ficarra) Taaffe and Patrice (Ficarra) Servidea, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and loving relatives and friends. He was never married.
