Joseph D. Salvia died unexpectedly July 7, 2021, at the young age of 68.
Joseph was born March 1, 1953, in Newark, and he grew up in Kearny.
At the age of 15, he became the man of the house and continued his lifelong journey as an entrepreneur.
Joe graduated from Queen of Peace High School in North Arlington. He then attended Bloomfield College where he became a member of the business fraternity, A K Psi, and graduated, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration. After college graduation, his first job was as an insurance agent for Prudential.
Three years later, he began his first family business as he owned and managed Avenue Deli & Sub Shoppe in Kearny. After moving to Florida, he managed Quincy’s restaurants and then later owned a vending business for 10 years. Always looking for a new adventure, Joe decided to start a new business and from 2004 until two and half years ago, in October 2018, he retired from Krystal Klear Pool Cleaning Service, which he also started from scratch and built success upon the foundation of professionalism, and the belief of the importance of relationships.
Even after he retired, he continued to display a Herculean work ethic, loyalty to his family and dedication to those he cared about.
For those who knew him in his younger days, you knew he loved fast cars and Rock & Roll. He spent many nights with friends cruisin’ down Kearny Avenue in his hot rod 1967 Oldsmobile 442. For those who knew him later in life, Joe was a family man, jack-of-all-trades, a Mr. Fix-It, a car, plant and train enthusiast, a Corvette lover, a fan of baseball and was briefly famous for his appearance on Hot Bench.
Joe was in his glory when he was swimming or working in his yard.
Joe is survived by his loving and dedicated wife of 44 years, Isabel Salvia; his sister, Nancy Kowalewski; his aunt, Dorothy Hilcher; his daughter Melissa Lundell; his three sons, Christian Salvia, Anthony Salvia Gregory Salvia; and his six grandchildren, Gianna and Luke Lundell, Noah and Nathan Salvia, Bryson and Briella Salvia.
He was preceded in death by his father Joseph Salvia, mother Mary DeVito Salvia and his son-in-law Charlie Lundell, (who we are sure is currently having a debate with him in heaven over whether the Yankees or Boston Red Sox are the better team.)
Please visit www.ourladyofthelakes.org if you would like to view the funeral Mass live stream on Saturday, July 31, at 11:30 a.m.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, a place where he has served on and off since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on Facebook Live, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to West Hudson to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.