Joseph Santangelo

Waltham – Mr. Joseph Santangelo, of Waltham, died Sunday, October 21, 2012 at the Golden Living Center in Lexington. He was 93.

Joe was born in New York City on June 15, 1919, a son of the late Felix and Olympia (Sanna) Santangelo. He was raised in the Bronx and graduated from Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory High School in Brooklyn.

He joined the United States Army in March, 1941, nine months before the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor that spelled the end of American neutrality at the beginning of World War II. Less than a year later Joe was on his way to North Africa and wouldn't see home again until the summer of 1945. After seeing action in Algeria and French Morocco he was sent to Sicily before being re-assigned to a unit preparing for the invasion of France in 1944. He saw action at Normandy, in Northern France and the Rhineland area of Germany.

Trained in electronics before the war he served as a radio research and development mechanic in the Army. After the war he took up more courses in the field and became an electronics engineer for the Raytheon Company and later at GTE Sylvania in Waltham and finally for the Mitre Corporation in Bedford before he retired.

He had a passion for electronics and was a lifelong ham radio operator who broadcast under the call signs W1NXY and N1JS. Joe belonged to the American Radio Relay League, the Quarter Century Wireless Association and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

He leaves his wife, Diana (Pierce) Parker-Santangelo; his children, Peter A. Santangelo and his wife, Katie, of Malden, Elaine M. Santangelo of Manchester, New Hampshire, Lillian R. Santangelo of Waltham and Diane L. Santangelo of Dedham; his step-children, Marianne Parker of Berlin, Connecticut, Phillip Paker of Kennebunk, Maine and David Parker of South Berwick, Maine; his grandchildren, Christopher Santangelo, Amy Cronis, Lisa Feeley and Ariana and Natalie Poltz; he great-grandchildren, Olivia Santangelo and Taylor Cronis and many nieces and nephews.

Joe was also the husband of the late Anna M. (Faerber) Santangelo and a brother of the late Dina Duffy, Phyllis O'Donnell and Carmine Santangelo.

Family and friends will honor and remember Joe's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Friday, October 26th, from 4 to 8 p.m. A Life Celebration gathering will be held on Saturday, October 27th from 12 to 4 p.m. at Sandy Burr Country Club, 103 Cochituate Road, Wayland.

Memorial donations may be made to the charity of one's choice.