Joaquin DeTorres

1929 - 2022

Joaquin DeTorres
March 24, 1929 - March 1, 2022
Resident of Oakley
Joaquin Carbullido DeTorres was the second son born to Barbara Charfarus and Jose DeTorres. The third eldest of four children, Joaquin was born in Piti -- a small village on the Western Pacific Island of Guam – one of several small islands in the Mariana Archipelago.
When war clouds gathered in the Pacific at the beginning of the 1940s, Joaquin was too young to participate in the war, so he helped his parents prepare for the inevitable invasion by the Japanese until the end of the war.
He arrived in San Francisco in 1950, joining his family in Pittsburg, California and gaining a job as a bar tender at the Camp Stoneman Officer's Club. When war again seemed inevitable, he wanted to follow his younger brother Manuel, who enlisted in the United States Air Force 10 days before the outbreak of the Korean War. But he was drafted into the United States Army in 1951 and was sent to basic training at Fort Ord in Monterey, California. His dream of becoming an American soldier was dashed, though, as he was released from his military obligations when the Korean War wound down – it ended in 1953.
As time passed, he settled in Oakland, California with his wife – Cynthia, whom he met in 1956. Joaquin then took a job with the American Steel Foundry in Oakland. When he and Cynthia ended their marriage sometime after 1975, he moved to a local hotel. During dinner at a nearby restaurant he met Connie Drost. As their friendship grew, she invited him to stay with her family when they moved to the island of Alameda (in the Oakland estuary) in 1977 and became the overseer and protector of Connie's children as they grew into adulthood. Connie passed away in 1999. Joaquin moved in with his nephew Joseph -- the eldest son of his brother Jesus in 2011, remaining in Oakley, California until his death, and becoming the longest living member of the DeTorres Clan – reaching 90 years in 2019. He is survived by his youngest brother Manuel and numerous nieces and nephews, and grand-nieces and -nephews.
Visitation will be held on Thursday, March 17, 2022, at 4:00pm with a vigil at 6:00pm at the Pittsburg Funeral Chapel. Graveside service will be held on Friday, March 18, 2022, at 10:30am at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Lafayette.


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