On Dec. 18, 2023, Joseph J. Cirigliano of Nobleboro, Maine, and formerly of Hampton Bays, passed away peacefully with his daughters Carin and Jessica and his wife Carol, of 28 years, at his side. He was 81 years old.
Born in 1942, Joe was raised and educated in West New York, N.J. He later graduated from Eureka College where he was a proud member of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. After earning a masters degree at ISU, he worked for, and retired from, Eastern Suffolk BOCES as a school psychologist.
With his first wife, Jean Wyman, they raised their girls in Hampton Bays. Joe enjoyed reading, nature, fishing, tinkering in his workshop, inventing recipes with leftovers, tending a vegetable garden, photographing wildlife, and cheering the NY Jets, all with a black lab named Salty at his side.
In 1995, Joe reunited with and married his high school sweetheart, Carol. Soon after they moved to Maine. There he volunteered in the community and joined the local Lion’s Club, where he served twice as president and received the coveted Melvin Jones Fellow Award for humanitarian service.
To many he will be remembered for his dry sense of humor, quick wit and practical jokes.
Joe leaves behind his wife, Carol (Quercia); daughters Jessica Cirigliano and Carin (Frank Blackstone); granddaughters Samantha, Francesca and Danielle; step-children Craig and Erik McKeown and Kerry (Toby DiCesare); and step-granddaughters Madison, Sydney, Taylor, Riley and Emersyn.
The family will receive friends on Saturday, Dec. 23 from 9 to 10:45 a.m. at the DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Mattituck. The Liturgy of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, Dec. 23 at 11 a.m., following the visitation, at Our Lady of Good Counsel R.C. Church in Mattituck, officiated by Father Michael Bartholomew. Interment will follow at Sacred Heart R.C. Cemetery in Cutchogue.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Damariscotta-Newcastle Lion’s Club, P.O. Box 315, Damariscotta, Maine 04543 or Guide Dog Foundation of Smithtown at guidedog.org.