Joseph “Joe” Del Vecchio, 87, died April 6, 2011, at the VNA Hospice House in Vero Beach.
He was born in Hackensack, N.J., and lived in Vero Beach since 1982.
He was a 1941 graduate of Bogota High School and 1948 graduate of Montclair State Teachers College, where he earned a master’s degree in microbiology.
He also studied at the University of Pennsylvania.
He taught at Thomas Jefferson High School in Elizabeth, N.J., for 19 years and at Kean College of New Jersey for 16 years.
He served in the military from 1943 to 1946 as a lab technician aboard a hospital ship in the Atlantic and Pacific.
He helped start a neighborhood 4-H Club, working to organize Crop Walks to raise funds for world hunger and self-help projects in Third World nations.
He was president in the Parent Teacher Organization and active in Monmouth, N.J., Presbytery.
He was a delegate to Synod and General Assembly.
He was an elder and deacon at First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach and a delegate to General Assembly.
He went twice with a team to Ticul, Mexico, on a mission tour.
He was a volunteer missionary in Papua, New Guinea, for 2½ years.
He was a woodworker and made furniture and helped build homes for Habitat for Humanity.
He started his own toy-making business, Majocrafts.
Survivors include his wife of more than 62 years, Mary, of Vero Beach; sons, James, of Coon Rapids, Minn., and Robert, of Bernardsville, N.J.; daughters, Ruth, of Wilson, Wis., and Jody, of Waxhaw, N.C.; sisters, Mary Fields, of Southhampton, Conn., and Bridget Criscuola, of Sunnyside, N.Y.; brother, Pasquale Del Vecchio, of Birmingham, Ala.; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to Wycliffe Bible Volunteers, P.O. Box 6281, Orlando, FL 32862-8211.
A memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 13 at First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach.
Arrangements are by Cox-Gifford-Seawinds Funeral Home and Crematory, Vero Beach.
A guestbook is available at www.seawindsfh.com.
