Joseph J. D'Amico, 94, Realtor

Joseph J. D'Amico, 94, of Drexel Hill, who rose from humble beginnings to become a Realtor and insurance broker, died Monday, Jan. 21, of prostate cancer at his home.

Mr. D'Amico, the eldest of seven children, was the son of a seamstress and a Sicilian shoemaker in Philadelphia. He worked alongside his father as a young man.

He graduated from Overbrook High School in 1936. His first job out of school was laying steel track for the Pennsylvania Railroad; it was the hardest work he ever did, he later told family.

Times were hard, and work was hard to find. He turned over his paycheck to his parents to support their large family.

Mr. D'Amico earned a degree in business and accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While a student, he landed a job as a timekeeper at City Hall; he would climb all over the scaffolding, checking on when the laborers arrived for work.

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

He met Alice Falotica, a local girl, when she walked past his father's cobbler shop. The two married in 1944.

After he graduated from Penn, he worked for a time selling rubber soles for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., then joined Prudential Insurance Co. as a broker. At the same time, he learned residential real estate sales.

In the 1950s, he and his wife ran Crown Realty, a real estate office at 62d and Catharine Streets in West Philadelphia.

In 1959, Mr. D'Amico moved his family to Drexel Hill, where he opened Ormond Realty at Ormond Avenue and State Road. He retired at 66, when his wife died. They were married for 40 years.

Mr. D'Amico enjoyed music, dancing, and reading, but most of all, spending time with family.

"He was . . . a true patriarch and born leader to whom everyone entrusted their confidences," his family said.

Surviving are sons Joseph J. and Andrew J.; daughters Annette Case and Jane Gallagher; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

A viewing will be from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, followed by a 10 a.m. Funeral Mass, at St. Bernadette Roman Catholic Church, Bond and Turner Avenues, Drexel Hill. Interment will be in SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple Township.