Todd Izzo never questioned his faith, despite being struck down by a rare cancer in the prime of his life.

“Todd had such a strong faith,” said Margaret Izzo, his wife of 22 years. “Instead of asking why did God do this to me, he asked why did God do this for me?”

Mr. Izzo, 49, of Mt. Lebanon, died Friday after a yearlong battle with stomach cancer.

An Ivy-League educated international tax lawyer and equity partner with Deloitte in Pittsburgh, Mr. Izzo and his family crammed what they hoped to be a long and happy retirement into just a little more than a year, Mrs. Izzo said.

“We were very fortunate that he was able to be on sabbatical leave so Todd and I could just focus on his health and our family,” she said. “We had 30 years of retirement that we thought we could spend together compressed into one year.”

Mr. Izzo spent the past year devoted to his family and community, tending to his garden — which included flowers and a horseradish plant — and playing with Rosie, his 8-year-old Havanese dog who never left his side.

“They had a very special bond,” his wife said. “We were very lucky that [UPMC Shadyside] allowed us to have Rosie in the Intensive Care Unit with Todd a day before he died.”

Mr. Izzo grew up in New Castle, Lawrence County, graduating from Neshannock High School in 1987.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Penn State University in 1991, graduating summa cum laude.

Mr. Izzo, who worked for his father’s accounting firm during college breaks, won an award for achieving the highest score in the state in the Certified Public Accountant exam in 1991. He went on to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where, in 1994, he graduated summa cum laude before he successfully pursued a master’s degree in taxation from Georgetown University in 2000.

Her husband loved accounting and law and saw an opportunity in combining them, Mrs. Izzo said.

“He always wanted to be a tax attorney,” Mrs. Izzo said. “His dad was a CPA, and he realized there was more he could contribute to the field with a law degree.”

In 1994-1995, Mr. Izzo clerked for the late Chief Judge Edward Roy Becker at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, then joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Dewey Ballantine.

During his first month of law school, Mr. Izzo met fellow law student Margaret Scott and felt an instant connection, telling his roommate that he would marry her.

“We met at a student function and just started talking,” she remembered. “Todd had this really big personality. He was very outgoing.”

For her birthday — one day after Abraham Lincoln’s — Mr. Izzo got her a Lincoln Log cake.

“He really embraced who I was,” she said.

In 1995, he surprised her with a horse and carriage ride at a romantic bed and breakfast in St. Michaels, Md. He hopped out of the carriage and dropped to one knee to propose.

“I was just thrilled,” said Mrs. Izzo, who married him in August 1996.

By 2000, Mr. Izzo accepted a job as an international tax lawyer with Deloitte in Pittsburgh, finding that his passion for his hometown eclipsed his ambition.

“He was kind of a superstar, and people in D.C. wondered why he moved back to Pittsburgh, but he loved Pittsburgh and how the people here are very real,” his wife said.

Mr. Izzo became an equity partner in the firm in 2003 and the family often scheduled their vacations to coincide with his business trips, which took him all over the world.

They traveled to London, Paris, and to Berlin for an unforgettable vacation in 2016.

“He loved his job,” Mrs. Izzo said. “He always said it was fun. He loved every moment of it.”

One of their voyages took the family to a small town in southern Italy, where Mr. Izzo met distant relations.

“It was wonderful to connect with them,” Mrs. Izzo said. “Todd always cared about his heritage.”

Mr. Izzo played the clarinet since childhood, along with his father and daughter. The trio played together with the Red Coat Band in New Castle.

“They had three generations of clarinet players in the family,” Mrs. Izzo said.

He also loved playing golf and reading, especially biographies.

“He had very deep and very strong interests. He would read three newspapers a day. And he loved biographies …,” his wife said. 

Mr. Izzo was passionate about religion and served as a lector at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Mt. Lebanon, where he loved attending Mass when he could with his family.

“Sometimes he was too sick to go, but he would always read a Bible passage every morning,” his wife said. “And he never felt sorry for himself or questioned God. He spent a lot of time praying.”

At his funeral services earlier this week, friends and family remembered him for unshakable faith and his zest for life.

“He had this joie de vivre,” his wife said. “Todd was a shooting star who burned hot and intensely but only for a short period of time.”

Along with his wife, Mr. Izzo is survived by his daughter Katherine Izzo; his son Jonathan, both of Mt. Lebanon; his parents Bob and Rose Marie Izzo, of New Castle; and his brother Mark Izzo, of Erie.

The family suggests memorial contributions to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Law, noting "in memory of Todd Izzo," at https://www.law.upenn.edu, or the Izzo Family Scholarship/Smeal College of Business, at https://www.psu.edu, or to St. Bernard Church at https://www.stbernardchurchpgh.org.

Janice Crompton: jcrompton@post-gazette.com.

First Published: March 28, 2019, 1:33 a.m.