Gorham- Joseph “Joe” Michael Pastore Sr, Founder and President of Southern Maine Karting and Scarboro Modified Karting lost his courageous battle with Alzheimer’s at the young age of 60 on Friday, November 17, 2017... Joe grew up in Portland, Maine with his older brother Tommy, and sisters Lucia Pastore Parker and Mary Pastore Haire. When Joe turned 12, his father Julius Pastore and mother Peggy (O’Donnell) Pastore moved the family to Rhode Island where Joe attended and graduated from Tolman High School in 1976. It was there that he met his forever friend and wife of 39 years, Donna Lynn. Joe went on to attend the Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute from which he graduated in 1978. Joe took his first Executive Sous Chef position at the former Sheraton Dunfey Hotel in South Portland in 1978, the same year he was married. For the next 5 years Joe would go on to worked for the Dunfey family in the hotel business from Maine to California. Wanting to return to the East Coast, Joe took a job as the Executive Chef at the Ethan Allen Inn in Danbury, Connecticut. It was in Danbury their son Joey Jr and daughter Amanda were born. Moving back to Maine, in 1991 Joe went to work as a Director of Nutritional Services for Jackson Brooke Institute, which would eventually become Spring Harbor Hospital for 22 years. During Joe’s time in Connecticut he discovered a love for go Kart Racing. Joe approached the owners of Beech Ridge Motor Speedway and they agreed to rent the facility to the first go karting club in Southern Maine to run at the Ridge. For more than a decade, Joe was instrumental in bringing families together from all over Northern and Southern Maine to race Friday nights throughout the summer months. Many great drivers have come up through the ranks of his family’s go karting organization. Joe will be forever remembered for his never ending drive, work ethic, determination, kind and caring nature and above all his never ending smile and resounding laugh. He was a devoted and loving husband, brother, father and grandfather. Joe is survived by his childhood sweetheart, Donna (Moreau) Pastore, his two children Joseph Pastore Jr and Amanda (Pastore) Bacon. He also leaves behind his three precious grandsons, Declan Bacon, Dominic Bacon and Jace Pastore. Joe’s disease eventually robbed him of the quality time he truly deserved with these little boys and his other family members over the past four years. Throughout Joe’s life he was never one for traditional celebrations, he always liked to go all out to see people celebrate and have a good time, this was evident each year with his annual go kart banquets. With that thought in mind Joe would like to invite friends and family to his Celebration of Life at Spire 29 on Saturday, November 25th from 4-8. Joe will be cremated and interred at the Hillside Cemetery in Gorham.
A special thank you to all the staff members at Sedgewood Commons in Falmouth for all the love and support they have given Joe over the past 16 months. It was a long journey full of tears and laughter, but one in which we all went on together everyday.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Chad E. Poitras Cremation and Funeral Service, Buxton. Online condolence messages can be submitted at www.mainefuneral.com