Joseph Angelo Yanni

Brighton - October 14, 1925 - January 27, 2024
Joseph Angelo Yanni, long-time Brighton resident, died at home at age 98. He lived a life of remarkable achievement, good health, boundless energy, and self-confidence.
Born in eastern Pennsylvania to Italian parents, Joe's path of upward mobility was made possible by keen intelligence, hard work, and determination. His education until sixth grade was in a one-room schoolhouse, with the same teacher all six years. He got straight A's, except for the occasional C in comportment. He held a job from his earliest days - paper routes, working at Brokhoff's dairy. (In fact, when he volunteered for the army, the paperwork listed his civilian occupation as "Bottle Washing Machine Operator.") He never participated in any organized sports as a youth, although he was a natural athlete and loved baseball. His father died when Joe was 13; a younger sister died the same year. His friendly and optimistic mother, known to all as "Big Mom," supported the family by cooking at the Elks Lodge. Her specialty was a "whole half-chicken" served with a plate of spaghetti. Their home was in the Crow Hill neighborhood, a group of twenty or so houses on the outskirts of Pottsville.
When the United States entered World War II, Joe was 16. He enlisted in 1943 when he graduated from Pottsville High. He would have loved to fly fighter jets, but his eyesight did not meet the requirements. Joe later attributed his survival to the fact that he was in an office, rather than on the front line; his high school, vastly underestimating his capacities, forced him to learn how to type and take shorthand. He headed to basic training in Miami in 1944, and later that year, at age 19, he found himself on Saipan, a volcanic island 1,500 miles from Japan and 3,500 miles from Hawaii. The unfamiliar landscape was devoid of insects and even small birds, due to the army's standard coating of DDT. He was in the 73rd Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force. His unit won a Meritorious Unit Award for pulling together to build Isley Field, a small airstrip on the site of sugar cane fields. In September of 1945, he flew low over Shanghai in a B-29 to drop packets of food for prisoners of war. By February 1946, he had been honorably discharged. While in the army, he told a fellow serviceman that he was going to go to Harvard, and his friend said: "They don't let people like us into Harvard."
The G.I. Bill transformed Joe's life. Returning from the Pacific, he enrolled in Pennsylvania State University and excelled as a Commerce and Finance major - but his introductory Art History class made a lasting impression. He completed his bachelor's degree by 1949 and applied to just one law school. Amazingly, he was admitted to Harvard. From a coal-region village to a tropical island to the Ivies--all by age 23.
He met his wife, Joan Kinney, in Pottsville, where she was teaching college English. They wed in 1949 and were married until her death one year ago, in January 2023. Between them, they had three parents born in Italy, and one born in the US of Irish extraction. They were Roman Catholic. They shared extraordinary cleverness, a wry sense of humor, and Roosevelt-era progressive politics.
Joe graduated from law school in 1953. He joined the accounting firm Price Waterhouse in its Philadelphia office because the starting salary was higher than that of any law firm willing to hire a child of illiterate immigrants. In 1959, they moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania when Joe took a position in the Finance Department at Air Products, a supplier of gases for industrial uses.
Joe and Joan had seven children in a span of twelve years, three born in Philadelphia and four in Allentown. He took great pride in their high grades. Family values included an emphasis on academics over sports or after-school activities, frugality over conspicuous consumption, and a love of music and fine arts.
Joe's banking career began at the Irving Trust Company, housed in an Art Deco skyscraper on Wall Street in lower Manhattan. It was difficult to find an affordable house for seven children nearby, thus, improbably, he commuted from Allentown PA to New York City for five years. In 1973, the family moved from Allentown to Rochester, New York, where Joe became the Chief Financial Officer of Security Trust Company. The family lived in the same house in Brighton for fifty years.
Joe took his hobbies seriously. Over the course of his life, he owned dozens of vehicles, all in various states of dangerous disrepair. In the early years, he acquired cars and spare parts at junk yards. The Yanni Family jalopies ranged from dowdy Chevy station wagons to sporty Austin Healy convertibles to muscle-car Mustangs. He enjoyed fixing cars with his sons, Phil and Mark, although repairing one problem under Dad's supervision often led to two or three more mechanical troubles. He organized the family photos not by child, but by car.
He loved all kinds of dancing - he and Joan went out every Saturday night, and although they grew up on swing, they loved folk dancing, cha-cha, and mambo. Joe enjoyed country line dancing, the shuffle, and the waltz. For many years, he could be found two-stepping at Rustler's Roost. Carla survived many evenings cutting a rug with Dad. She reports that floor navigation was not his strong suit. He was a beloved member of Rochester's Lindy Hop community; when the Lindy Hoppers had their World War II-themed dances, he was Exhibit A.
As a proud Calabrian American, he celebrated Italian culture, whether that be the Colisseum, the Sistine Chapel, or the operas of Verdi. He held aged salami, Locatelli Romano cheese, and hearty red wines in high regard. An admirer of the New Deal, Joe also supported Kennedy's New Frontier and Johnson's Great Society; he remained steadfast in his belief that government should provide relief for the needy and protection for the vulnerable. The hypocrisy of conservative Italian American politicians, whose own families had reaped the rewards of social programs, rankled him. He cultivated a particular scorn for Rudy Guiliani, Antonin Scalia, and "Senator Pothole" Al D'Amato.
Joe retired from Security Trust in 1983 after it merged with a larger bank. He then failed at retirement several times. During the Savings and Loan Crisis in the 1990s, he was part of the Resolution Trust Corporation's efforts to wind down failed institutions - he served as short-term CFO of Columbia Banking Federal Savings and Loan in Rochester and later supervised a bank in Lawton, Oklahoma. Lastly, he stepped in as the Financial Director of Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority during its financial crisis in 1996. At the bus company, he initiated and secured a state grant that paid for bus passes for people in the Women and Infant Children program (WIC). He also taught finance students at SUNY Geneseo.
He was fearless to a fault. He treated safety warnings with skepticism, if not outright disdain. He learned to ski in his 40s, took up skateboarding in his 50s, and replaced the roof of the Brighton house in his 70s. He never admitted to being ill and avoided medications. One of the few times he required hospitalization was after he broke his femur barreling down Rocket Run at Bristol Mountain at 10PM. He was 78 and had parked in a handicapped spot using Joan's hangtag.
From the age of about 80 until Joan's death almost two decades later, Joe's full-time occupation was as her caregiver. He was her personal assistant, medical aide, shopper, cook, driver, and housekeeper. This is exhausting labor for anyone, at any age, but it is especially touching that a man of his generation, who did little domestic work for most of his adult life, adapted himself to this demanding role.
Joe was an inspiration to his children and grandchildren, friends and neighbors, coworkers, fellow dancers, bartenders, home repairmen, and almost anyone who crossed his path.
He is pre-deceased by his wife Joan Kinney Yanni and siblings, Mary Yanni, Rosalie Gennerella, and Michael Yanni. He is survived by his children Cathy Yanni (David Yount) San Francisco, CA; Barbara Yanni, High Bridge, NJ; Palma Yanni (Robert Deasy) Lusby, MD, Mark Yanni (Tammy Rogers) Canyon Country, CA; Philip Yanni (Barbara Armenti Yanni) Poway, CA; Lee Yanni (James Lahti) Rochester, NY; Carla Yanni (Bill Winfrey) Highland Park, NJ; and grandchildren Jake Yanni Campbell, Annapolis, MD, Ryan Yanni, Los Angeles, Peter Yanni, Vista, CA, and Joseph Winfrey, Highland Park, NJ.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in honor of Joseph A. Yanni and Joan Kinney Yanni.