Joseph Difranco

To dine with Joseph DiFranco was to love him. His head was his cookbook, his family his muse, your taste buds his canvas. If the kitchen is the heart of the home, then Joe was its lifeblood. It was perhaps this culinary prowess, along with his musical talents, that helped woo his life partner of forty-four years, his beloved wife, Colleen King DiFranco. Joe was born in Brooklyn to Philip and Anne DiFranco and spent his first eighteen years of life in that same borough. In 1968 he enlisted in the US Navy where he was an aviation electronics technician aboard the USS Independence, and later whet his musical blade at Berklee College of Music, cashing in his GI Bill to attend. Joe was an electronic technician for the US Postal Service for nearly thirty years, but for Joe his trade was a mere footnote to a life lived with love. Joe would tell you the best decisions he ever made were marrying his wife Colleen and fathering his two sons, Nicholas and Gabriel. He taught his sons to fish. He coached their soccer clubs (which Joe did not care for; the soccer, that is). He cooked (boy, did he cook). He read voraciously. Kurt Vonnegut, Joe’s favorite author, wrote that the purpose of life “is to love whoever is around to be loved”, which is how Joe lived until slipping this mortal coil on February 26th, 2023. He is survived by his wife Colleen, his sons Nick and Gabe, his daughters in law Karolina and Callie, and his beautiful granddaughter Maia. Oh, and one less-than-faithful canine companion, Huck. A celebration of Joe’s life will be held at 1:00 pm on Saturday, March 11th at Whiting Station Residents Club, 323 Gardenia Dr, Manchester Township, NJ 08759. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made in Joe’s memory to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memorial Giving, 500 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38005.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.andersoncampbellwhiting.com for the DiFranco family.