Obituary of Joseph Michael DeVittorio

Joseph DeVittorio, beloved husband, father and inspirational friend to many, passed away at home with his wife Vanessa by his side, on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 in State College, Pennsylvania.

Joe was born in St. Mary's, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1934 to the late Carl and Rose (Francisco) DeVittorio and raised in Ridgway and Warren, Pennsylvania. In his teen years, Joe specialized in mischief, built go-carts, scouted and achieved rank of Eagle Scout, worked in a coalmine, assisted at Warren State Hospital, and riveted cars in a local tank car factory. The diversity of activities and jobs instilled life-long lessons in hard work, discipline, and compassion. After graduating in 1952 from the Staunton Military Academy in Staunton, Virginia, Joe attended United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. With his aspirations of becoming a pilot quelled by an injury sustained at West Point, Joe transferred to Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and continued with graduate studies in physics at Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Starting his career as a chemist at Standard Oil of Ohio, Joe discovered a solution to address sources of oil decay in storage tanks, which launched him into a career of research and development, skunkworks, invention, engineering and manufacturing, mergers & acquisitions, management and consulting. Across the years, Joe pioneered techniques in machine tooling, chemical and material coatings, and other fields of science with Sherwin-Williams Company, Ransburg Corporation, S.C. Johnson & Son, Spintex, Inc., among others, earning over a dozen patents across multiple disciplines. Joe served as Vice President, Research and Development and, later, President and General Manager at Sherwin-Williams; Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Fibers Division at Honeywell. As Senior Vice President in Corporate Planning for Shaw Industries, Joe focused on international expansion and acquisitions, helping to position the company for its eventual acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway.

In his 'retirement', Joe brought his breadth of experience to Partner and Executive Consulting positions with PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM Business Consulting Services, Computer Sciences Corporation, Sun Microsystems Inc., The Kenjya Group and Premier Management, traveling internationally to serve commercial clients and government agencies. Working into his early 80s, Joe was intrigued by and immersed in capabilities offered from emerging technologies and thrived on applying engineering, scientific and financial innovations to new fields and industries.

An avid sportsman, Joe enjoyed track and football in his youth, and later excelled in waterskiing, snow skiing, boating, marksmanship, and carpentry. Throughout his life, Joe was gentle and truly kind. He served as an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, counselling youths in distress. Joe extended his intellect, enthusiasm, and generosity to family, friends, colleagues, and community.

In addition to Vanessa, Joe is survived by his daughters Kim DeVittorio (Jeff King) of Dripping Springs, Texas and Kristin DeVittorio of Fort Wayne, Indiana; grandson Joshua Frankel (Lexie Williams) of Prosper, Texas; sister Delphine Smith of State College, niece Julia Smith (Richard Head); nephews Harry Smith (Kathleen Koss) and Carlo Smith. Along with his parents, Joe was preceded in death by his daughter Allison DeVittorio and first wife Janet DeVittorio.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to West Point (https://www.westpointaog.org/giveonline) or Lewy Body Dementia Association (https://www.lbda.org/#).