Joseph Anthony Giovaniello of Williston Park passed away peacefully on January 26,

2026. He was born at home on West 27th Street in Manhattan on December 28, 1925,

the 8 th of 11 children of Anthony and Catherine (née Paolella), immigrants from Italy. His

father, who worked as an iceman in summer and coal man in winter -- delivering each to

homes in New York City -- died when Joe was just 11, and his older brothers helped

support the family via a family newsstand that operated next to Gimbel's Department

store. Joe worked there during high school, helping to run it for a time with his younger

brother, Nunzio, while their older brothers served overseas in WWII. He graduated from

the High School of Commerce in Manhattan, the first of his siblings to have the

opportunity to earn a high school diploma. As a teenager, he lost the sight in his right

eye during a stickball game when, serving as pitcher, he threw a peach pit that the

batter hit directly into his eye. Partial blindness did not impede him.

After post-war service in the Philippines in the mid-1940s, he earned a Certificate in

Accounting by taking night classes on the GI Bill at Pace College in Manhattan.

Afterwards, he worked as an accountant at Biddle Purchasing Company in New York

City, where he met Dorothy Groen, who worked at the desk adjacent to his own. They

married in 1951 at St. Brigid's Church in Ridgewood, Queens, where they lived until

moving their family to Port Jefferson Station, Long Island, in 1963.

In 1969, the family moved to Williston Park, Long Island, where Joe lived until his recent

short illness. He was a devout Roman Catholic and a parishioner at St. Aidan's Church

in Williston Park for 56 years, serving as an usher, a lector, and, for a time, a mentor in

the Church's confirmation program for adults joining the faith. As his children grew up

and started driving in the 1970s, Joe supplied mid-1960s Dodge Darts as wheels; he felt

comfortable with these cars because the first new car he owned was a 1963 model with

a push-button transmission. He even bought a 1966 Dodge Dart convertible for himself,

all prompting one teenage friend of the family to call the family home "Dodge City." In

later years, after 30+ years commuting to Manhattan, Joe worked closer to home on

Long Island at Roosevelt Raceway and Mason Mix before retiring in 1995. A lifelong

Yankees fan, he also enjoyed singing, spending several years as part of the Barbershop

Harmony Society (formerly known as SPEBSQSA) and singing karaoke in public and at

home with his brother, Otto; most agreed he did a nice Sinatra. A devotee of the Virgin

Mother, Joe also made pilgrimages to various locations around the world where the

devout believe the Madonna appeared, including to Medjugorje (in the former

Yugoslavia) and Scottsdale, Arizona.

His wife, Dotty, passed away in 1993. He celebrated his 100 th birthday just weeks ago,

and outlived all of his siblings and two of his sons-in-law (John Gerdes and Gary Miller),

and is survived by his children, Dorothy Gerdes (James Darrah), Mary Miller, John

Giovaniello (Connie D'Amico), and Anne Zafian (Tom); his grandchildren Misty Blanco (Andrew),

Holly Capolongo (Albert), and Damien Zafian; his four great-grand-children, Andrew

Blanco, Natalie Blanco, Brooke Capolongo and Michael Capolongo, and many nieces

and nephews.

Donations in his memory are welcome to the Wounded Warrior Project     

www.woundedwarriorproject.org                     

or

 Tunnel toTowers Foundation   www.t2t.org