Joseph Codomo, Jr.
Joseph Codomo, Jr. was born April 23, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York and passed away August 28, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was the son of Joseph Codomo, Sr. and Bertha Codomo. He and his brother James were second generation Italians whose grandparents emigrated from Sicily in the early 1900s.
He graduated from James Madison High School in 1947, later joining the U.S. Navy where he trained as an Aviation Electronic Technician. He attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH, graduating with a degree in electrical engineering in 1959.
He met his wife, Eleanor, of Absecon, New Jersey, at a Navy dance where they soon discovered they shared the same birth date, five year apart. Joe’s career included positions held with Lear Siegler in Grand Rapids, MI, Parker-Hannifin, CT, Eldec in Lynnwood, WA, Gull Industries in Smithtown, NY, in addition to starting his own consulting company, International Flight Research Corporation. His professional career included small business manufacturing, avionics, flight simulation, and turbine engine performance instrumentations. He holds a patent from 1979 for a fuel flow meter for Navy trainer aircraft. Joe, along with Curt Schaffer, pioneered early technology in the late 1970s for the cortical hearing aid, an electrical and acoustic stimulation for the hearing impaired.
Joe and Eleanor resided in Bellevue, WA for over forty years where they raised five children. In 1997 Joe lost his youngest son Robert to ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Joe was an early member of the ALS Association’s Evergreen Chapter, where he met founder and friend Carl Moore, helped raise awareness for the disease, advocated for research funding, as well as being a generous donor for the Chapter. In 1996 Joe donated his prized powder blue 1970 Mustang convertible for the “famous Mustang Raffle” in honor of his son Robert. The proceeds provided funding for their early Augmentative Communications Program for ALS patients.
Joe lost Eleanor, his beloved wife of nearly fifty years, in 2005. An avid restorer of classic Mustangs, Joe and his sons had accumulated many projects over the years. Joe and Eleanor shared a love of the Three Tenors—Joe preferring Pavarotti, while Eleanor preferred Carreras. In their later years, Joe and Eleanor shared a wholehearted devotion to their many Golden Retrievers.
Joe leaves behind his brother James, children Stephen (wife Kym), Susan (partner Anthony), Michael (wife Lauri), and Christine (partner Glenn), grandchildren Brittany, Derrick, and Taylor, and great-grandchild Waylen.
Funeral services will be held on Friday, September 16th at Sunset Hills in Bellevue where he will be laid to rest with family.
