Joseph M. Giaccone

He Knew No Stress

Not too long ago, Sondra Giaccone broke it to her husband: "Joe, you're starting to look weathered."

She meant it as a compliment. Joseph Giaccone, 43, a vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald's Espeed division, had acquired the look of a man completely at ease in his own skin.

As much as he traveled for business, work stress did not own his face. He found the time to coach baseball for his son, Max, and to attend Nutcracker performances with his daughter, Alex. When the Giaccones moved to Monroe Township, N.J., he made visiting his parents, Elizabeth and Vincent in Queens, a priority.

He had developed the unusual ability to stop on a dime and relax instantly. On autumn Sundays, he would bake fresh bread while sipping a serious wine, his special Bolognese sauce bubbling on the stove. Andrea Bocelli would be soaring through the speakers; the Jets would be on TV. Bread done, Jets won, guests arriving, bliss! For nothing made Mr. Giaccone happier than feeding people.

So comfortable was he that he could laugh at himself. When Mr. Giaccone saw a video of himself at a family reunion in California, learning to surf in a wet suit, he cracked up. "I look like a pregnant seal!" he shouted.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on January 20, 2002.


Joe Giaccone, 43, passion spiced his life

Joe Giaccone was a man of strong passions.

He didn't just like fine wine, he was a true connoisseur.

He didn't just like to cook, he loved to cook.

He didn't just put in time at his job as head of telecommunications for eSpeed, a division of Cantor Fitzgerald, he threw himself into creating and maintaining the firm's vital worldwide network.

"The word I would use about Joe was 'passionate.' He put his heart and soul into everything he did," said Jim Day, a family friend and former co-worker.

Take cooking: Mr. Giaccone, 43, loved to barbecue, but to him that meant so much more than tossing burgers on a gas grill. He insisted on charcoal, and was known to try homemade grilled pizza, lamb chops, tuna steaks -- the latter with a memorable puntanesca sauce.

"He loved to give people food," said James, one of his two younger brothers. "That's what he loved: a house jammed full of people, with him running from room to room serving everybody."

Mr. Giaccone, his wife, Sondra, and their two children, Alex and Max, moved into their "dream house" in Monroe Township just seven months ago -- a house whose stove he hand-picked. "He just got his big new Viking oven -- that he can't even use now," Day said.

Over the years, Day's workplace friendship with Mr. Giaccone expanded to include their wives and children. He counted Mr. Giaccone as his mentor. "He knew how to combine hard work with compassion," he said. "He looked to his employees' strengths, not to their shortcomings."

In an twist of fate, Mr. Giaccone was the catalyst behind the company's provisions for a "disaster recover site" in Rochelle Park, which has allowed the company to continue doing business after the destruction of their World Trade Center offices.

Sondra Giaccone said that on a clear day, you could see the World Trade Center from the front bedroom of their new house. "Joe would always joke that he would flash the lights when he was coming home," she said.