Joseph Roccaforte, Jr., age 93. Long time resident of Chicago. Beloved husband of the late Mary Joanne nee Amella. Father of Joseph, Marianne (Dave) Roccaforte-Gardner and Catherine (Jeffery) Roccaforte-Probasco. Grandfather of A.J. Son of the late Joseph and Santa. Brother of Harry (the late Angella) and Peter. Joseph's services were private. Arrangements by Ridge Funeral Home. Info: 773-586-7900.
"As a day well spent gives joyful sleep, so does a life well spent give a joyful death."
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 - 1519)
"I looked backward, I looked ahead, I never saw so much and such good things all at once. How should I not be grateful to my whole life? And so I tell myself my life." ~ Nietzsche
Joseph was born in New York City, raised in Italy, San Biagio Platani Sicily, and attended high school in Palermo. He returned to the U.S. in 1947, lived in New York and then moved permanently to Chicago. Joseph became a 20-year employee of Eaton, Yale & Towne, Inc. as a tool room machinist. After that, he spent 20 years at Ferranti Sciaky from where he retired in 1991.
Joseph and his wife spent a brief visit in Sicily, Florence and Rome in 1992. He had a life-long passion for the Liberal Arts and the Great Books of the Western World. One of his favorite quotations came from Dante's poem:
Considerate la vostra semenza:
fatte non foste a viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza.
Think of your breed; for brutish ignorance,
Your mettle was not made; you were made men,
To follow after knowledge and excellence. ~ D. L. Sayers, trans.
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