Edward John DeBartolo, (1919-1994), was a real estate developer whose firm, the Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation, specialized in large regional malls. His son, Edward John DeBartolo, Jr. (born 1946), was company president and also the owner of the San Francisco 49'ers football team.

Edward John DeBartolo was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on May 17, 1919, the son of two Italian immigrants, Rose and Anthony Paonessa. His father died several months before his birth; his mother remarried, and Edward took the name of his stepfather, Michael DeBartolo, who raised him. Michael DeBartolo was a mason and general contractor in Youngstown, and during Edward's teens he worked on paving jobs and sometimes wrote the contracting bids for his Italian-speaking father. At his mother's urging he attended college at the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 1941 with a degree in civil engineering. In 1944 he married Maria Montani, and during World War II he served...