Joel Vittori

Generally speaking, envy is not a particularly good look for anyone. But one can’t help but have, at the very least, a twinge of jealousy for those who were fortunate enough to have known Joel Vittori Sr.

Joel, who for decades was synonymous with AAA South Jersey, passed away in April, 2020 at age 83. He was born May 6, 1936, the son of John P. and Marie Furci Vittori, and attended elementary and junior high schools in Salem City, after which he was recruited to play football at Pennsylvania Military Prep School in Chester, Pa. He subsequently went to Kings College in Wilkes Barre, Pa. and graduated with a degree in sociology in 1958.

In 1959, Joel went to work for Pan American World Airways in outside sales and lived in Arlington, Va. Among his duties there was to escort the first group of Peace Corps volunteers to Lagos, Nigeria.

In 1963, Joel headed back to Salem to join his father in owning and operating Vittori Motor Company, a Chrysler/Dodge dealership. In the late 1960’s, he was back in the aviation field as the North American chief of sales for Olympic Airways, and then returned to the car dealership, which he owned until 1989.

But his longest-lasting affiliation (outside of his almost-60-year marriage to his wife, Faith) was with the AAA South Jersey organization: He spent some 45 years on the chapter’s board of directors, including a number of them as its chairman and CEO. But according to those who knew and loved him, his jobs and work with the chapter were hardly the only measures of the man who reveled in the travel industry, but even more so in the people in his life, be they family members, friends, co-workers or total strangers.

That Joel was a special human being is evident in the responses from those who were challenged to sum him up in a single word. Such adjectives as “magnanimous,” “genuine,” “generous” and “caring” were conjured, which gives one some idea of the type of person he was. As do the numerous charities and non-profit entities that were aided by his insistence on helping those less-fortunate than he. Among the beneficiaries of his time and efforts—not to mention compassion—were the Salem Jaycees, the Penns Grove Exchange Club, the John B. Campbell Community Center of Salem, the Stand Up for Salem initiative, the Ronald McDonald House of South Jersey and the Adam Taliaferro Foundation. But even that barely scratches the surface when it comes to the person he was. As such, SJ FIRST asked some of the people to whom he was closest to offer memories and thoughts of the man whose passing left such a huge void in so many lives:

A wife remembers

Obviously, no one knew Joel better than Faith, with whom he raised sons Joel Jr. and John and daughter Amy and doted over their five grandchildren, John Patrick, Seth, Michael, Emma and Ann. The couple were introduced in December 1958 by Joel’s uncle; although their families had know each other for years, she and Joel had never met. But their June, 1960 wedding was proof they were destined to be together. Above all else, Faith remembers her late husband as someone who always put others first.

“He always wanted to help people. It was his first instinct whenever he met someone,” she said before ticking off the names of a slew of people who were brought into the AAA South Jersey fold by Joel.

“He was always interested in seeing people succeed and progress in their lives. That was a pretty amazing part of his life.”

Despite their decades of marriage, Faith always had to share Joel with his other love, travel. In addition to his long tenure with AAA, Joel founded several travel agencies. According to Faith, that passion was maintained pretty much until the end of his life.

“He loved to travel. Even as he was going into his last surgery, which happened in March 2020, he was still planning another trip to Italy. And he took all the grandchildren on a trip when each of them turned 16. Travel meant so much to him.”

A special way with people

According to South Jersey AAA CEO David Antrilli, Joel’s people skills were what made him special.

“He had a way of connecting with people and he made you feel like you were the most important person,” he said. “He had a way of remembering your family, and if you were having a problem in your life, even if you didn’t see him for a year, he would ask you about it. He had this innate ability to really connect with people.”

To illustrate his point, Antrilli told of a time when he wasn’t as close to Joel as he would ultimately become.

“I didn’t really know Joel very well when my father had passed. And he still took the time to write a two-page letter to me. He didn’t have to, there was really no reason. But it was really just to connect with me, and to let me know he had gone through a similar experience in a similar time in his life.

“Those words meant so much to me at that time, and that is who he was.”

‘He just seemed to know everybody’

Joan Sickler, AAA South Jersey’s senior director of applications and analytics, isn’t a family member, but she may as well be. Her mother grew up with Joel, and later in life, her father was Joel’s best friend. What struck her most was his remarkable ability to make friends wherever he went.

“My parents had a house in Maine,” she recalled. “They built a house about 30 years ago, and Joel bought a house up there not too long after that. And I don’t know how he knew him, but he knew the guy who lived on the small lane that went back to our house.

“And one time we walked into a restaurant in Maine and the owner yells out, ‘Hey Joel!’ I mean, he just seemed to know everybody. He just loved people. He was interested in everyone. He was just a charming man.”

An all-around success

“Joel’s been a friend, a confidant and a mentor to me throughout my entire life” said South Jersey AAA board member and Joel’s cousin, Tom Iacovone.

“He was just a fantastic, all-around individual. He was extremely smart, had tremendous business savvy, cared about people and loved AAA and everything about it.

“Joel was a source of wisdom, knowledge and understanding about AAA, but more than that, Joel was a source of knowledge and understanding of everything about people in business in general. He was a brilliant individual, with a great background and he just worked tirelessly in anything that he did. “He was a success in AAA, as a gentleman farmer, a father and grandfather.

The gift of appreciation

Like so many others, Jodi Zawierucha, AAASJ’s accounting manager, was moved by Joel’s considerateness and interest in the lives of those around him.

“Joel created the Continental Capers travel company, which did escorted tours of Switzerland,” she said. “Those were a couple of years where I worked directly with Joel, and there were a lot of long days and late nights; a lot of work. And I just remember at the end of the year, when he came around, to give out his Christmas bonuses, he stopped and really thanked me for helping them get it off the ground.

“And when I opened my check, I saw he had handwritten a little note [of thanks] on it. That really meant a lot: Here’s the CEO of the company who has 150 people that work in his organization, and he showed how he genuinely appreciated my help.”

A bond between Zawierucha (pronounced zer-ROO-ha) and Joel was the result of her having a daughter who shares a name—Emma—with Joel’s granddaughter.

“We would always talk about our Emmas,” she remembered. “I think about one of the last times I saw him. I hadn’t seen him in a while, and I remember him asking about my daughter and I told him how she got into the University of Virginia. And he was so happy; it was almost like he was a proud grandfather.”

An understanding, compassionate man

AAASJ travel manager Debbie Szafranski also worked closely with Joel at Continental Capers. To this day, his kindness as her CEO resonates within her.

“One time, I made a mistake, I missed a deadline and we incurred penalties,” she said. “I was petrified. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s costing the company money. I have to tell him.’ So I remember going into his office and sitting there and just saying, ‘Joel, it was my mistake. What do you want me to do?’

“There are other CEOs that would have said, ‘That’s fine, we’ll just take it out of your pay.’ But he just looked at me and he’s like, ‘Okay, it was a mistake. And, it’s only money. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’

“I couldn’t believe it. He was a businessman, but he was also compassionate.”

All of the above confirms what a truly special person Joel Vittori Sr. was. But if it needs to be boiled down to a single sentence, Tom Iacovone best summed up his late cousin when he said: “He was just a fantastic individual in all aspects of his life.”