Joseph L. Vitale, 89

Joseph L. Vitale, 89, died Jan. 26, 2022. He was born May 25, 1932.

Happy birthday, Joseph!

The tide recedes,  but leaves behind bright seashells on the sand.

The sun goes down, the gentle warm still lingers on the land.

If I had my one choice today my choice would not be hard – I wish that I could have you here to give you a birthday card!

To some you are forgotten to others just part of the past – but to me who loved and lost you the memory will always last.

I think about you, always I talk about you still – you have never been forgotten and you never will – your loving husband, Robert Girardo.

Joe was born in 1932 and lived on a farm on Staten Island. His father was an immigrant farmer from Italy who swooped up his Italian mother, the daughter of an immigrant who was 15 years old. He was 32.

Joe was born on the farm as were his brothers. His mother tirelessly worked day and night growing vegetables, making cheeses, wines, sausages, pastas and anything that they could sell to the market. His father worked the land and his mother did to plowing the field with the horse when the tractor didn’t work.

John went to cosmetology school at 16 years old  in Newark, New Jersey, for a year and a half.

He was awarded the most valued and talented student for two years. He owned a salon for 30 years and then worked part-time in the same salon afterwards.

Joe took a job with the state in a locked facility, the Institute for basic research in Staten Island, he held that position until 2007 as head of housekeeping and laboratory sterilization, a very serious job.

He maintained his home in Staten Island after his wife passed away in 1998. Mr. Vitale remarried in 2016 to the same sex partner Robert Girardo and were the first same sex couple married at City Hall chambers in Ocean City, New Jersey. 

Mr. Vitale bought his house in 1968 in Ocean City on Central Avenue and 28th St., a modest house, when he retired he became very distressed of the disrespect and abuse of the beach and was very much a silent advocate to support beach cleaning, storm drains and basically take care of the neighborhood because many of his neighbors were not full-time residents and he felt that these things needed to be addressed.

So many people thought he looked like Santa Claus; he was far from the Jolly old guy, and he could get really worked up over the environmental issues in Ocean City though he never verbalized anything and channeled his concerns through his partner who addressed him in City Hall. 

And because of his involvement many of the issues have been taken care of, such as the big mud hole on the beach at 28th St. and the proper entrance and the storm drains that were due to his encouragement, through his husband, to help maintain an area that he really loved dearly.

He is survived by a daughter, Caroline, and three grandsons and his husband, Robert Girardo. 

Again, happy birthday, Joe, I love you and miss you.