Joseph J. Recchie Sr., 95, passed peacefully at Grant Medical Center on July 23, 2016 after having been surrounded by his family all week. Born in 1920 in Sora, Italy and having immigrated to Steubenville, Ohio at the age of 7, he graduated from Steubenville Catholic Central High School, where he played varsity football and baseball. He then attended Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia on an athletic scholarship for both football and baseball. He served in the U.S. Army as part of the 213th Field Artillery attached to the 40th Infantry Division in the South Pacific during WW II. He married Martha Rickey in 1947 and moved to Columbus to work in the automobile business, initially for Bill Kay Oldsmobile and then American Motors Corporate Zone Office and finally as General Manager of Saeger Buick, where he retired in 1987. In addition to his work, Joe initiated and organized an annual Christmas food drive that was funded by the employees of Saeger Buick to provide a week’s worth of groceries for hundreds of needy families in the Holy Family parish on the west side of Columbus. Drawing on Joe’s experiences as a child immigrant, he and Martha worked with Catholic Social Services to sponsor many immigrant families settling in Central Ohio from throughout the world. He was a member of St. Catharine parish in Bexley, Ohio and St. Edward parish in Palm Beach, Florida. He is preceded in death by his parents, Ralph and Assunta Recchie of Steubenville, Ohio, his wife of 66 years, Martha Rickey Recchie, and their eldest son James B. Recchie of Columbus. He is survived by his three children, Nancy A. Recchie (Jeffrey Darbee) of Columbus, Joseph J. Recchie Jr. (Larke Recchie) of Granville, Ohio, Ralph M. Recchie (Lindsay Recchie) of Cary, North Carolina; and by seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, his older brother Eusebio Recchie (Violet Recchie) of Steubenville, and numerous nieces and nephews. The family will be receiving friends and loved ones at Egan-Ryan Funeral Home, 403 East Broad St., Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, July 28th from 4-7 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Catharine Parish, 500 South Gould Rd., Bexley, Ohio at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, July 29th.  Interment at St. Joseph Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages contributions to the Recchie Family Scholarship Endowment Fund at Ohio Dominican University: www.OhioDominican.edu; or to ODU Advancement Office,1216 Sunbury Rd., Columbus, Ohio 43219. Contributions may also be made to the Community Refugee and Immigration Services, www.CRISOhio.org ,1925 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., Suite 102, Columbus, OH 43229.

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