Friends gather in Fargo church to remember former Oklahoma City slain dentist

Colleagues, friends and neighbors of the slain Fargo dentist said they took comfort Saturday knowing Gattuso is with her in heaven.

About 200 gathered for a memorial service at Fargo's Bethel Evangelical Free Church, where Gattuso was a member and arrived early on Sunday mornings to listen to the musicians warm up.

The 49-year-old Fargo periodontist, formerly of Oklahoma City, was found beaten to death with a hammer Oct. 26 in his south Fargo condominium after he failed to pick up his daughter from day care.

The Rev. Paul Bond said he had lunch with Gattuso on Oct. 1, and Gattuso shared with him the pain of losing Valerie, who died in March after living on an artificial heart for 18 months.

"He said, 'I want to see Valerie really, really, really bad,' "Bond said. "Little did we know that three weeks later, that would be fulfilled."

Colleagues and friends spoke of Gattuso's devotion for his 3-year-old daughter, Kennedy, his Southern drawl and his upbeat nature, even as he grieved for Valerie. Photos of a smiling Gattuso were displayed at the front of the church and in the narthex.

"I'm certainly better having known him," said Gattuso's friend and colleague Steven George. "I think everyone he touched is better having known him, his patients, his staff, his neighbors, his colleagues."

Gattuso's family was unable to attend the service. A funeral was held Wednesday in his home state of Louisiana.

The Rev. Matthew St. John read a letter from Gattuso's son Joseph, who said his father always had the right words to say, including a recent phone conversation when Joseph was nervous about a business trip.

"He calmed down my nerves like only he could do best and said that I was going to do great," Joseph wrote in the letter. "His last words to me were that he had never been more proud of his son."

Gattuso also is survived by another son, Philip Jr.

Bond described Gattuso as a renaissance man: an avid photographer, poet and writer who loved Dixieland jazz, cooking and grilling.

During their lunch conversation just weeks before his death, Gattuso confided in Bond that he was planning to launch a new career and start an art franchise in downtown Fargo.

Many spoke of Gattuso's strong Christian faith and how he attended a men's fraternity at the church at 6:30 a.m. each Friday.

Gattuso also could be found Sunday mornings at Bethel's cafe, with one eye on his Bible and the other on his daughter.

The circumstances that brought people to Saturday's memorial service are painful, St. John said.

"Philip was brutally murdered," St. John said. "We cannot get our brains around the brutality and the motive."

Pastors urged people to take comfort that Gattuso is in heaven with Valerie. "Though for us we grieve and for us we hurt, we need to understand that Philip is free like he's never known freedom before," St. John said.

Michael Allen Nakvinda, 41, of Oklahoma City, is charged in Cass County, N.D. in connection with Gattuso's death. Also charged is Gene Kirkpatrick, 63, Gattuso's father in law. Kirkpatrick is accused of hiring Nakvinda, described as Kirkpatrick's handyman, to kill Gattuso because he did not like the way he was raising his granddaughter since her mother's death.