Joseph Paul PILLITTERI

1930 - 2017

PILLITTERI - Joseph Paul December 2, 1930 - February 8, 2017. A former Tonawanda resident, Joseph died in his home in Fresno, California after a lengthily illness with Parkinson's Disease. He was 86. Orphaned at the age of four, he was raised in a Buffalo orphanage with his eight siblings. As a young man, he authored four novels, When the Giraffe runs Down, Two Hours on Sunday, The Betrayal, and Life pulse, a story based on the Buffalo snow storm of 1977. His writing was praised by a New York Times book critic as reminiscent of that of Arthur Miller, the author of Death of a Salesman. He worked for years as a title searcher at the Monroe Abstract Title Company in Buffalo after being the sole survivor of the three people rescued from the Parke Pharmacy fire on Elmwood Avenue, in Buffalo, in 1972. He is survived by his wife Adele, two daughters, Dawn and Lynn, and five grandchildren. His brother Paul Pillitteri and a sister Agnes Pillitteri Brown still reside in Buffalo. His son, Russell, preceded him in death four years ago. He will be remembered as a man who survived great obstacles in his early life to become an always smiling, deeply loved and loving husband and father.