Bethlehem City Controller David DiGiacinto, the fiscal watchdog who died unexpectedly on Jan. 26, was laid to rest Saturday. Funeral services were conducted by Father Abraham Ha at St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church at a Mass attended by more than 300 people.

Despite the sudden nature of DiGiacinto's death, a reading from Ecclesiastes told mourners there is a time for everything, "a time to be born, and a time to die."

In his sermon, Father Ha praised DiGiacinto, not as a city official, but as a "husband, a father, a son and a friend. God's child." Recalling DiGiacionto's extensive collection of hats and T-shirts, Father Ha joked that DiGiacinto could "wear one a day and never do laundry." On a more somber note, the priest called him a "wonderful gift that God shared with us for 61 years."

Bethlehem's former City Council President, J. Michael Schweder, delivered a brief eulogy. "He refused to go along just to get along," Schweder observed. "He didn't follow the course, but he stayed the course," he concluded.

DiGiacinto, a graduate of both Liberty HS and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served with distinction as an Air Force pilot for six years. After resigning his commission in 1981, he spent 18 years at Pfizer, where he held various positions in sales and management. At the time of his death he was chairman and CEO of Axiom Power.