Joseph D'Amico, 94, real-estate, insurance broker

J OE D'AMICO knew what hard work was.

Life was tough in the years of the Great Depression, and Joe was lucky to get any job. But working on the Pennsylvania Railroad, laying track, was a true test of muscle and grit.

"He claimed it was the hardest job he ever had," his family said.

While in high school, Joe worked with his father, an immigrant from Sicily, as a shoemaker.

And while working his way through college, Joe had another challenging job: climbing over scaffolding at City Hall to keep tabs on laborers as a timekeeper.

"He loved that job," his family said. "He thought City Hall was a magnificent building."

From these occupations, Joe D'Amico forged ahead in life, earning a college degree and becoming a successful real-estate and insurance broker in Philadelphia and Drexel Hill.

Joseph J. D'Amico, a family patriarch who was never too busy to listen to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, honoring their confidences while dispensing sage advice, died Monday. He was 94 and lived in Drexel Hill.

Joe was born in Philadelphia, the oldest of the seven children of Andrew and Anna D'Amico. His father had been sent to America by his family in Sicily to learn the shoemaker trade. He operated a shop at 60th and Chestnut streets.

Joe graduated from Overbrook High School in 1936 and went on to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, earning a degree in business and accounting.

He met his future wife, Helen "Alice" Falotica, and they were married in 1944, after he graduated from Wharton.

He worked in sales for Goodyear Tire & Rubber, selling shoemaker products to most of the shoemakers in the region, including Neolite rubber soles.

He then joined Prudential Insurance Co. to become an insurance broker. At the same time, he studied residential real-estate sales.

Joe realized his dream of owning his own business when he opened his real-estate office at 62nd and Catharine streets, not far from his father's shop.

With the help of his wife, his business, Crown Realty, thrived. In 1959, he moved his family to Drexel Hill and started afresh with a new real-estate and insurance business called Ormand Realty, located at Ormand Avenue and State Road in the Northeast.

He retired at age 66. His wife died in 1980. The business was taken over by his youngest child, Jane Gallagher.

Joe was a family man and enjoyed family get-togethers with his children, his siblings and their families, including excursions to the Jersey Shore.

His oldest daughter, Annette Case, is in real-estate development; his son Joseph J. D'Amico Jr. is a colorectal surgeon at Christiana Hospital in Delaware, and another son, Andrew J. D'Amico, is a lawyer in Delaware County.

He also is survived by nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Services: 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Bernadette Church, Bond and Turner avenues, Drexel Hill. Friends may call at 8:30 a.m. Burial will be in Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple.