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RUSSO, Joseph L. "Joe" of Costa Mesa, CA, and Hilton Head Island, SC, passed away peacefully on December 19, 2020, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, following an illness. Joe is survived by his loving daughter Cecelia Walsh-Russo, his son-in-law Toke Knudsen and cherished granddaugther, Ida Knudsen. He was the dear brother of Janet Briggs of Hilton Head Island, SC, and Laura Sarver of Poulsbo, WA. He was the cherished uncle of Jacquelyn, Jennifer, Stephen and David, and great uncle of Emily, Thomas and Brianna. He was the beloved nephew of his aunt Catherine Santospirito of West Roxbury, MA.
Joe was originally an urban planner and later enjoyed a second career as a high school educator. He maintained wide-ranging interests in travel, politics, architecture, music, photography, bicycling and education. Funeral Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA. Direct your gifts to Gastrointestinal Cancers, Pancreatic Cancer (https://danafarber.jimmyfund.org/site/Donation2?df_id=2100).
Eulogy
Good afternoon...are we awake?
This was the line my father loved to quote from of his favorite films, Blazing Saddles. In fact it was the text he sent to me on the last day of his life. I hadn’t really been awake and I think he probably knew that. As much as he was a morning person his only daughter is just not. I got dressed and trudged through the snow onto Brookline Ave. to Starbucks. Once there, I ordered our usual breakfast over the past several months of warmed pumpkin bread and pumpkin spiced latte.
My father never stopped exclaiming how each morning the combo was “just delicious” and “really hit the spot,” with smiling enthusiasm. Even as he became sicker and more fatigued, lost weight, his enthusiasm for this breakfast combo remained the same—joyful and satisfied.
He faced the past four months that included health crises of enormous, terrifying magnitude with perseverance, a sense of calm and resolve. Together we thought we could get him the help he needed. And he was willing to put up an enormous, brave fight. And fight he did. His love of living, of observing and thinking and just being alive never dampened. Even when faced with such a deadly diagnosis, when he sat down to talk with his oncologist he texted me that he felt he had met a partner he could work with—to not only receive help from Dr. Wolpin but contribute in some way to future understanding and knowledge about this disease.
My father loved to laugh and find the humor in even the most challenging of circumstances. And he was able to see what others often miss—that our lives are the results of he countless delicate interactions between larger forces out of our control along with our own individual circumstances; and that both together ultimately shape who we are. From this depth of understanding, my father unsurprisingly had an appreciation of the drama of history, of systems and of social change.
He was born in Cambridge, MA, at Mount Auburn Hospital and lived in Boston during his early years.
Early on as a boy, he told me recently he was endlessly fascinated by transit systems—the movement of trains especially—through time and place. Out of this fascination came a love of all things urban, a devotion that he maintained throughout his life. He became a life long passionate observer of cities and especially of transit systems throughout the world. While a college student in Detroit, Michigan he was witness to the 1967 riots that decimated the city. This event as well as others that marked the contentious 1960s left an indelible mark on him—on the need for racial and economic justice. To him trains were never just about technology. The need for reliable public transit was about spreading resources and even democracy to places were those ideals were forbidden to flourish—namely, parts of cities left desolate and abandoned by the early 1970s.
In 1970 he received a masters degree in urban planning, with a specialization in transportation planning from New York University. He worked as an urban planner for two decades in the Northeast and was a leader in the redesign and re- modernization of New Jersey’s public transit system. He was a planner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 1985-1993. He was a survivor of the first terror attack on the World Trade Center in February 1993. He left his desk that day in Tower One after hearing and feeling the loud explosion. He found that all but one of the darkened stairwells he and others tried to use were filled with smoke. Eventually, he made it home safely but only after shrewdly hopping on a water taxi to avoid the chaos happening downtown.
In 2004, he decided to leave the east coast and relocated to his beloved Southern California, in Orange County. He embarked upon a new career as an educator and received a Masters degree in Education from the California State University at Long Beach. As a photography and graphics design full-time instructor at Saddleback High School in Costa Mesa his work as a teacher combined his long- standing passion for sharing knowledge, discussing ideas with his love of photography. He adored his students, many of whom came from a diversity of backgrounds. His dedication to his students was unwavering. Like many of his students, my father faced many challenges in his life. Meeting them at various points, he kept going. And in turn he developed remarkable and inspiring resiliency.
His resiliency and fortitude helped him to teach others to see the world through new eyes. He told me a story shortly before he passed away about a student who never came to class, never seemed to care too much about the course. Suddenly near the end of the term, the student came to him and said, “Mr. Russo, I know I haven’t paid attention and I know I’m going to fail. But it turns out that I really need this course to graduate. Can we figure something out?”
Being a kind teacher, my father decided to help. Joe gave the student deadlines and the student submitted everything he owed for the class. He met with Joe to hand in the final assignment and thanked him. As the student was leaving the classroom, he turned in the doorway and said, “You know, Mr. Russo, I really do see the world differently.” My father was deeply touched.
My father was also part of a strong network of teacher-colleagues. His dear friends, Mike Gamnig, Chester Maharaj and Alberto Lazaro were friendships that provided support and caring.
After his retirement from teaching, his life became a life of sun and sea, traveling to new, far off places and watching professional sports of all kinds in his spare time.
His love of family was deep. He enjoyed visiting his sisters, speaking with them often and traveling with them. And he relished his time with his nieces and nephews Jacquelyn, Jennifer, Stephen and David playing endless games of Sorry with them many Christmases ago. And later he adored his holidays with his grand nieces and nephew, Emily, Brianna and Thomas. And whether he had a great deal of time, or only just a little he always made the efforts to travel to spend quality time with family and friends. His last trip before lockdown was to visit his beloved grand-daughter, Ida.
His greatest joy in the last year of his life during the pandemic lockdown was biking down the long bike path to his cherished to Newport Beach from his home and stopping to do the crossword puzzle on the beach. It would be just him, the wide expansive beach, and the brilliant sunshine, he told me, and it was delightful. His unwavering curiosity about the world in all its beauty and his impatience with its injustices fueled his dedication to making a difference, one person at a time.
I will love and miss you my darling Pop, forever.
RUSSO, Joseph L. "Joe" of Costa Mesa, CA, and Hilton Head Island, SC, passed away peacefully on December 19, 2020, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, following an illness. Joe is survived by his loving daughter Cecelia Walsh-Russo, his son-in-law Toke Knudsen and cherished granddaugther, Ida Knudsen. He was the dear brother of Janet Briggs of Hilton Head Island, SC, and Laura Sarver of Poulsbo, WA. He was the cherished uncle of Jacquelyn, Jennifer, Stephen and David, and great uncle of Emily, Thomas and Brianna. He was the beloved nephew of his aunt Catherine Santospirito of West Roxbury, MA.
Joe was originally an urban planner and later enjoyed a second career as a high school educator. He maintained wide-ranging interests in travel, politics, architecture, music, photography, bicycling and education. Funeral Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA. Direct your gifts to Gastrointestinal Cancers, Pancreatic Cancer (https://danafarber.jimmyfund.org/site/Donation2?df_id=2100).
Eulogy
Good afternoon...are we awake?
This was the line my father loved to quote from of his favorite films, Blazing Saddles. In fact it was the text he sent to me on the last day of his life. I hadn’t really been awake and I think he probably knew that. As much as he was a morning person his only daughter is just not. I got dressed and trudged through the snow onto Brookline Ave. to Starbucks. Once there, I ordered our usual breakfast over the past several months of warmed pumpkin bread and pumpkin spiced latte.
My father never stopped exclaiming how each morning the combo was “just delicious” and “really hit the spot,” with smiling enthusiasm. Even as he became sicker and more fatigued, lost weight, his enthusiasm for this breakfast combo remained the same—joyful and satisfied.
He faced the past four months that included health crises of enormous, terrifying magnitude with perseverance, a sense of calm and resolve. Together we thought we could get him the help he needed. And he was willing to put up an enormous, brave fight. And fight he did. His love of living, of observing and thinking and just being alive never dampened. Even when faced with such a deadly diagnosis, when he sat down to talk with his oncologist he texted me that he felt he had met a partner he could work with—to not only receive help from Dr. Wolpin but contribute in some way to future understanding and knowledge about this disease.
My father loved to laugh and find the humor in even the most challenging of circumstances. And he was able to see what others often miss—that our lives are the results of he countless delicate interactions between larger forces out of our control along with our own individual circumstances; and that both together ultimately shape who we are. From this depth of understanding, my father unsurprisingly had an appreciation of the drama of history, of systems and of social change.
He was born in Cambridge, MA, at Mount Auburn Hospital and lived in Boston during his early years.
Early on as a boy, he told me recently he was endlessly fascinated by transit systems—the movement of trains especially—through time and place. Out of this fascination came a love of all things urban, a devotion that he maintained throughout his life. He became a life long passionate observer of cities and especially of transit systems throughout the world. While a college student in Detroit, Michigan he was witness to the 1967 riots that decimated the city. This event as well as others that marked the contentious 1960s left an indelible mark on him—on the need for racial and economic justice. To him trains were never just about technology. The need for reliable public transit was about spreading resources and even democracy to places were those ideals were forbidden to flourish—namely, parts of cities left desolate and abandoned by the early 1970s.
In 1970 he received a masters degree in urban planning, with a specialization in transportation planning from New York University. He worked as an urban planner for two decades in the Northeast and was a leader in the redesign and re- modernization of New Jersey’s public transit system. He was a planner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 1985-1993. He was a survivor of the first terror attack on the World Trade Center in February 1993. He left his desk that day in Tower One after hearing and feeling the loud explosion. He found that all but one of the darkened stairwells he and others tried to use were filled with smoke. Eventually, he made it home safely but only after shrewdly hopping on a water taxi to avoid the chaos happening downtown.
In 2004, he decided to leave the east coast and relocated to his beloved Southern California, in Orange County. He embarked upon a new career as an educator and received a Masters degree in Education from the California State University at Long Beach. As a photography and graphics design full-time instructor at Saddleback High School in Costa Mesa his work as a teacher combined his long- standing passion for sharing knowledge, discussing ideas with his love of photography. He adored his students, many of whom came from a diversity of backgrounds. His dedication to his students was unwavering. Like many of his students, my father faced many challenges in his life. Meeting them at various points, he kept going. And in turn he developed remarkable and inspiring resiliency.
His resiliency and fortitude helped him to teach others to see the world through new eyes. He told me a story shortly before he passed away about a student who never came to class, never seemed to care too much about the course. Suddenly near the end of the term, the student came to him and said, “Mr. Russo, I know I haven’t paid attention and I know I’m going to fail. But it turns out that I really need this course to graduate. Can we figure something out?”
Being a kind teacher, my father decided to help. Joe gave the student deadlines and the student submitted everything he owed for the class. He met with Joe to hand in the final assignment and thanked him. As the student was leaving the classroom, he turned in the doorway and said, “You know, Mr. Russo, I really do see the world differently.” My father was deeply touched.
My father was also part of a strong network of teacher-colleagues. His dear friends, Mike Gamnig, Chester Maharaj and Alberto Lazaro were friendships that provided support and caring.
After his retirement from teaching, his life became a life of sun and sea, traveling to new, far off places and watching professional sports of all kinds in his spare time.
His love of family was deep. He enjoyed visiting his sisters, speaking with them often and traveling with them. And he relished his time with his nieces and nephews Jacquelyn, Jennifer, Stephen and David playing endless games of Sorry with them many Christmases ago. And later he adored his holidays with his grand nieces and nephew, Emily, Brianna and Thomas. And whether he had a great deal of time, or only just a little he always made the efforts to travel to spend quality time with family and friends. His last trip before lockdown was to visit his beloved grand-daughter, Ida.
His greatest joy in the last year of his life during the pandemic lockdown was biking down the long bike path to his cherished to Newport Beach from his home and stopping to do the crossword puzzle on the beach. It would be just him, the wide expansive beach, and the brilliant sunshine, he told me, and it was delightful. His unwavering curiosity about the world in all its beauty and his impatience with its injustices fueled his dedication to making a difference, one person at a time.
I will love and miss you my darling Pop, forever.
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