Victor Joseph Cresto

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Victor Cresto Obituary

Cresto, Victor Joseph
of Tempe, AZ, succumbed to his long battle with cancer May 19, 2011 at age 67. He was born in Trinidad, CO on March 19, 1944 to Nora and Victor Cresto and grew up in Camarillo, CA. Vic graduated from ASU in the late 60's. He and former wife, Lynda Winston Cresto, opened their first antique business in the mid-70's, Those Were the Days on Van Buren and 42nd St, followed by Reverie on Mill Ave in Tempe, and finally opening Second Hand Rose on 14th St & Indian School in the late 70's where he was owner and operator of the successful antique business with his trusted friend and employee Paul Bridge. Vic was a long time member of VSADA. He enjoyed traveling cross-country buying and selling antiques and collectibles. Survivors include 2 daughters, Abby Cresto Vinson and Molly Cresto Snyder, and son Peter Cresto, 4 grandchildren and a sister Susan Cresto. At Vic's request no funeral services will be held but condolences may be sent to Second Hand Rose, 1350 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85014 and friends and family are also encouraged to share memories and condolences by visiting the online obituary Guest Book at www.obits.azcentral.com

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The Arizona Republic on May 29, 2011.

Memories and Condolences
for Victor Cresto

7 Entries

Tom Finnerty

June 6, 2011

To Lynda,
I was one of Vic's first employees in the shop on 16th Street and then moved with you to Indian School. It was my first real job and he was a great boss, showing me how to do everything in the shop including trusting me to run things on my own at 16 years old.

I remember stripping furniture out in the hot sun and watching it dry before my eyes or having him unload a rolltop desk from one of his buying trips with 5 coats of paint. Everyone should have a first job like that.

It was great to work with someone who had such passion and you made me feel like I was part of the family.

May God bless you and your family and help you through this tough time of loss.

Gary and Lucy Richardson

June 5, 2011

We have fond memories as neighbors seeing the trailer FILLED with antiques parked outside the home on Carson Drive after a road trip and seeing the treasurers you found. We never look at a wooden duck without thinking of Vic because we know he loved them. He could restore furniture like noone else we knew. We are sorry to hear of his passing but we know that he is alive and well and happy and that you will have an opportunity to see him again. Our Savior gave us the great gift to live again. We will all be resurrected. I don't know if there are antique stores in heaven - if not, there is something much better. We pray for peace and comfort to all of Vics family and friends who will miss him - until we see him again.

June 5, 2011

To the Family of Victor Cresto
Susan Cresto & Lynda Winston Cresto
Abby, Molly Peter and to Vic’s Grandchildren

An old mutual friend, from our Ventura College Newman Club years, called this week to inform me of the sad news of Vic’s pasting. He lives in the Phoenix area and saw the announcement.

Vic and I met at the start of our freshmen year at Ventura College 1962. We were in a couple of engineering classes together and we both joined the Newman Club. We quickly became very good friends and palled around for the next three years.

Let me share a few tales about Vic, some will get a laugh and some will remind you of Vic’s special traits.

In the spring of ’63, we were collecting items for the combined California Newman Clubs annual food, toys, clothing drive for an orphanage in Mexico. Vic volunteered to chair our club’s collection in Ventura. Typically, clubs would fill up bags of items, load them in the trunk of their cars and drive down to the orphanage (outskirts of TJ, Mex). Vic always was thinking BIG! He gets announcements in the radio stations, campus paper, and the Ventura Star Free Press. He hits up local stores for canned foods, toys and clothing. He contacts doctors for free samples of children medicine. He sets up collection stations, but they soon proved to be too small. He takes over 3 or 4 parking spaces at my Dad’s store as a central collection. At the end of the collection drive, he is using a whole line of parking spaces. Vic gets Benkins Van Line to transport this tonnage down to the Calif-Mex border. He gets the local priest to round up a dozen drivers with trucks to haul from the border to the orphanage. Vic never did things “small”!! He always thought big, and it doesn’t surprise me that the Crestos kept expanding their antique stores.

Another time we were all dressed up –suits and ties (can’t remember what the event was) and we gathered early at my house before leaving. I started talking about my structure design class and how the shape of items increases its strength, such as in car fenders, or the best example; the egg. My professor had used a raw egg and put the elongated ends in the palm of his hands, with fingers laced together and pressing, he could not break the egg. Other students also tried, but couldn’t break it.
Vic stated he could do it! So, I got a raw egg for him.
Now, remember, Vic was an impeccable dresser; his tie knot would be perfect, the cuffs on his white shirt would extend just the right amount from under his jacket, the white handkerchief tucked in his breast pocket.
Vic attempts to break the egg, and fails. He adjust his hands to get a tighter press (and I think this is were the long ends of the egg get out of alignment) Pop goes the egg – and with his fingers laced, the yoke only has one way to go - to his face and suit. Vic is totally surprised, mad, turning red, and shouting, but everyone was laughing too loud to hear what he was shouting.
We cleaned him up, and he agreed the YOKE was on him. Later that night we clued some others in on what happened, and told them to go over where Vic was and causally say, “It sure smells like rotten eggs over here”. Vic would start smelling his jacket. We all laughed and Vic along with us.

We realized the summer of 1965 was going to be our last free time. There was school to finish and careers to start. So we took a week camping trip to Yosemite. We selected a nice lakeside site just outside of the National park that offered a variety of activities. We picked a good area for the tent (the one we borrowed from a retired army friend) laid it out, and then realized that we didn’t have any tent poles. This was not a pup tent, it was like the ones you see on “M*A*S*H” but smaller. We needed 8 foot poles!
There was never a challenge that Vic wouldn’t accept. “This one is easy.” He said. “I’ll just find two eight foot tent poles in the middle of the woods.”
Vic, who I think was an eagle scout, took off while I made camp. Vic returns within thirty minutes with one 8 foot tent pole, and said he would get the other one tomorrow.
I, of course, asked him where he got it. He told me and made me promise never to tell. And, I have kept that promise for 46 years, and see no reason to break it now. Let’s just say that Vic was very resourceful.

We did so many things: Dodger baseball games, deep sea fishing, and college leadership conferences in Cambridge Pines, Catalina Island, and the Miramar in Santa Barbara. A group of us would rent a place on Balboa Island for Easter Week. Vic helped repair my boat and we did a lot of water skiing together. For New Year’s Eves, Vic would get a group to go down early to Colorado Blvd in Pasadena. We would party in the street, and then have a front row viewing of the Rose Parade. As everyone knows, there was never a dull or boring moment with Vic.

After that summer, our lives took us in different directions. I saw Vic at ASU in Sept ’66 after I was commissioned in the Army and on my way to the Engineer School at Ft. Belvoir, Va. The next time was in Feb 1969 when I got back from Vietnam and stopped to see Vic and met Linda. Later that year we met up in Ventura and they met my wife, Sharron. In the summer of 1970, Vic and Linda made one of their first “Picking” trips east –Va, Md, New England areas. We were living in officer’s quarters at the Engineer School, and they could use our place to store their findings while they searched for more treasures.

The years following all went too quickly, raising children, living overseas, and a hundred other things that interfered with staying in contact. But retirement allows you to do things that we have put far too long. Last winter, I found Vic’s address on the internet and mailed a card and letter to Him.

Knowing Vic, he fought hard, didn’t complain, and was surrounded by the love of his family. Vic, my old friend, it’s time for eternal rest, go in peace, see you later at the big Camp Site and I will make sure to bring the tent poles

Terry & Sharron Lane Hudson, Florida
[email protected]

Dorothy Flood

June 4, 2011

We appreciate all the years of service you gave to the VSADA (Valley of the Sun Antique Dealer's Association), and for always sharing your knowledge with us. You will be greatly missed. My prayers are with you. Dorothy Flood

Teresa Peterson

June 1, 2011

Those we love must someday pass beyond our present sight... Must leave us and the world we know without their radiant light. But we know that like a candle their lovely light will surely shine to brighten up another place more perfect... more divine. And in the realm of Heaven where they shine so warm and bright. Our loved ones live forevermore in God’s eternal light. You are loved & missed Uncle Victor

May 30, 2011

We extend our deepest sympathies to the whole Cresto family and Paul. Vic has been a great friend and we always enjoyed visits to Second Hand Rose. Everytime we went down there we would stay for at least two hours talking about antiques and all his visits back east. He was always filled with passion about his projects and the treasures he would find. His sense of humor always made our visits a delightful! To this day we have something in every room from Vic's shop and we are proud to display his life's work. He will always have a special place in our hearts! From Rocky and Karla Gomez

From the Staff of Carr-Tenney Mortuary

May 24, 2011

Offering our deepest condolences during this difficult time.

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