Linda Stirpe

1957 - 2015

Stirpe, Linda SAN DIEGO -- Linda Stirpe died peacefully on June 5, 2015, surrounded by family and friends. Born in San Jose, California, on July 26, 1957, Linda was the daughter of Gino Stirpe, an Italian immigrant and WWII veteran, and Vivian Stirpe, a second- generation Italian, and was raised in a traditional Catholic family with her three siblings, Gina, Jay, and Paul. In 1968, the family moved back to the East Coast to upstate New York, where her parents had grown up, and in 1975, she graduated with honors from Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park. She was the homecoming queen of a class of 700 seniors and went on to become the first female president of the student body of Adirondack Community College in 1977, where she earned an associate science degree. She then attended Saint Rose College in Albany, New York, graduating cum laude with a bachelor of science in business and art education in 1979. Linda had worked part-time as a model to help pay for college, and when she moved to New York City to start her career in the computer industry, she continued modeling on the side. Disillusioned with the morality of modeling, she soon entered the advertising industry instead, which incorporated both modeling and her business education. With a partner, she later started a photo-finishing company, establishing offices in the Empire State Building, before returning to upstate New York to attend Union College in Schenectady, where in June 1986 she received her MBA with a minor in computer information systems. In 1987, Linda moved to San Diego, California, to be closer to her sister, Gina, and her sister's family. She worked for the County of San Diego in environmental health system development network engineering for over 11 years. During that time, she believed she had an inner calling from the Blessed Virgin Mary to help the poor heal emotionally. She began praying the rosary daily, continued her studies, received her master of arts in counseling psychology, and became a marriage and family counselor. She left her engineering career to work with the severely mentally ill as well as families in the cycle of extreme poverty in the Barrio Logan area of San Diego, during which she completed her marriage and family therapist license. She practiced for the County of San Diego for over a decade, counseling families, children, and people facing severe poverty, violence, and gang-related activities. She was also a member of the San Diego Crisis Team. In the late 1990s, she started a thriving private practice as a Catholic counselor, realizing the inner call from the Blessed Mother was to help people with "poverty of heart", not only the poor, and that true healing and peace only comes from a close relationship with God. Linda was a parishioner of Saint Brigid Catholic Church, where she led a prayer group studying the Divine Will, by Luisa Piccarreta. Later she joined Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Little Italy, San Diego, where she sang in the Latin choir. She also sang in the church choir at Saint Sofia Catholic Church in Spring Valley. She is survived by her mother, Vivian Stirpe, and siblings Gina (Trevor) Schneider and their five children, Jay Stirpe, and Paul (Nanette) Stirpe and their four children; she is preceded in death by her father, Gino Stirpe. A Vigil will be held at the Carmelite Monastery of San Diego, 5158 Hawley Boulevard, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 11th. The funeral Mass will be at the Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, 1668 State Street, at 9:30 a.m., Friday, June 12th. Interment will be at the Holy Cross Cemetery, 4470 Hilltop Drive, San Diego.