Joseph DiGiorgio, the man widely credited with creating the Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps, died on June 13 after a brief illness. He was 90.
A World War II veteran DiGiorgio had been living in the Veterans Affairs Nursing Home in Northport, since early March.
His daughter Joanne said when he died in the V.A. Hospital last Wednesday, he was holding his Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps chief’s badge in his hands.
“My father was proud of the ambulance corps. That was his heart,” she said.
DiGiorgio was born on the lower east of Manhattan and grew up in Manhattan and Brooklyn. He enlisted in the U.S. Army after the start of World War II along with his brothers, John, an airman and Tony, who served in the South Pacific.
DiGiorgio served in Europe as a platoon sergeant in the 78th “Lightning” Division, training troops for combat before he himself landed in Le Havre France after D-Day.
“I was in the infantry. I worked very hard training men,” DiGiorgio recalled in an interview with the Williston Times in December 2010.
His unit moved from France to Belgium and then Holland, then back into France, ultimately becoming the first unit to enter German territory during the final phase of the European conflict.
He had a vivid memory of the war, of friends he lost in the fighting and, like other veterans who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, of the frigid temperatures in the Ardennes Forrest during that winter of 1944.
“It was cold, very cold. We tried everything to keep warm,” DiGiorgio recalled.
His unit was sent back to France after V-E Day, and was being prepared for deployment in the South Pacific before the war there ended.
DiGiorgio returned home to Mineola and married Louise, the girl who literally lived next door. The couple lived in the village for the next 57 years.
DiGiorgio, who used to like to go dancing at Roseland, fondly remembers his sweetheart as a woman who had the proverbial two left feet – and an iron will.
His long-time friend and neighbor Sal Cataldo, commander of the American Legion, attested to his tenacity, and his good nature.
“He was a tough guy, but he had a heart of gold,” Cataldo said.
DiGiorgio credited his wife with the idea for the ambulance corps. His daughter, Joanne, said the issue came to a head one night in 1977 when her father was taken ill at a Knights of Columbus dance and waited an inordinately long time for an ambulance to arrive.
“Something needs to be done,” she said her mother told him.
So the fundraising effort for the Mineola Ambulance Corps began, along with a public lobbying effort in the face of local resistance.
“They fought the village. They fought the fire department. They fought everybody,” Joanne DiGiorgio recalled.
Cataldo witnessed DiGiorgio’s uncompromising style of soliciting support first-hand.
“He hit everybody, He was persistent. He wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Cataldo said.
In April 1979, a parade was held to herald the establishment of the Mineola Volunteers Ambulance Corps, which responded to 300 calls in that first year of service.
DiGiorgio never stopped soliciting funds for the ambulance corps.
Tom Devaney, secretary for the organization, witnessed DiGiorgio’s knack for soliciting funds first-hand.
Devaney was with DiGiorgio when they stopped at a 2nd Street garage for a welding job DiGiorgio needed done. He immediately introduced Devaney as the MVAC president and reminded the office manager that she hadn’t chipped in.
“You should give me a contribution,” Devaney said DiGiorgio told her.
He suggested they should give $200, making it clear he wasn’t leaving without a contribution, Devaney recalled. She walked out of the office and promptly returned with a check for $200.
DiGiorgio and his wife drew many of their neighbors to the cause, including Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss’s mother Diane.
“His heart couldn’t be any bigger. He moved mountains to start that ambulance corps. His heart was in the right place, and that place was Mineola,” Strauss said.
State Sen. Jack Martins fondly recalled the man who was a neighbor when Martins was growing up.
“Joe was a person who cared, a person who made a difference. And he changed Mineola because he cared,” Martins said.
His nephew, former Suffolk County Supervisor Michael Logrande, remembers his uncle as a man of great physical strength as well.
“He used to lift car motors,” DiGiorgio recalled of his uncle whose nickname was “Bronco.”
He recalled how his uncle obtained a 1949 Cadillac from the Town of Hempstead coroner’s office and turned it into the first ambulance for Mineola’s fledgling volunteer corps.
“I rebuilt that thing myself, like a new ambulance,” Joseph DiGiorgio recalled in the 2010 interview. “I was in the auto parts business and everybody helped me out.”
DiGiorgio, who retired from being an auto mechanic after suffering a back injury, got contributions from four auto parts businesses in the Mineola area.
He recalled that Izzy Irus, who owned Mineola Glass, gave him the windshield and the glass for the side windows of the vehicle. He installed new brakes and brake pads, and everything else.
In 1997, DiGiorgio and his wife, who helped assemble the core group of 30 original volunteers, were given a state Assembly citation for exemplary service to their community.
“I feel very happy that I started an ambulance corps,” DiGiorgio said. “I worked like hell to get it going and it’s still on the run.”
The Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps boasts more than 50 members and responds to 1,000 emergency calls annually.
“Joe and Louise DiGiorgio were dedicated members of the community, and every call the Mineola Volunteer Ambulance responds is a testament to their dedication. MVAC would not exist today if not for the hard work and perseverance of the DiGiorgios,” Devaney said.
Louise DiGiorgio died in 2004.
In addition to his service with the ambulance corps, DiGiorgio was a member of the Mineola Italian-American Civic Association, Adolph Block VFW Post 1305 and American Legion Post 349.
“He was a colorful guy and a stand-up guy,” said Cataldo, commander of the Mineola American Legion Post.
“He was a nice man,” said Manny Grilo, local VFW commander. “He helped both the Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.”
Along with his daughter, Joanne, DiGiorgio is survived by his sister, Frances Marino, and 10 nephews and nieces.
A funeral mass was held last Saturday morning at Corpus Christi Church in Mineola. He was interred in Holy Rood Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the DiGiorgio family requested memorials to the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204
