Joseph Patrick Melloy, Sr.

Joe, 89 years old, passed away peacefully on September 12 after visits from his children and grandchildren. Born and raised in Wilmington, Joseph Patrick Melloy was the son of John Patrick Melloy of Philadelphia and Mary Elizabeth Waldron of Norristown, Pennsylvania.

Joe was the consummate Irish gentleman, with complementary parts intelligence, creativity, and compassion. A talented and competitive athlete, fighter jet pilot, artist, and technology expert, he was as comfortable writing marketing plans and grant requests as he was doing a pen and ink drawing or carving a decoy. He was a loving husband and parent, supportive friend and involved citizen. As busy as his life was, without fail he knew how to “show up” for life’s special moments and those routine moments made special by his presence. Even with wide professional and community responsibilities, he always put his family first.

At Archmere Academy, he excelled academically and played Varsity basketball and baseball. President of his Senior class, after graduating in 1952 he attended St. Joseph’s University where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and was a member of the Air Force ROTC.

In character with his life’s arc, at a young age, he found his perfect life partner, recounting the memory of seeing her at a party playing pool, challenging her to a game, and watching her break and run the table. He courted her with love letters illustrated with endearing quotes from clever cartoon characters he created. By his senior year of college, he married Alberta Peterman of Milford, Delaware. Born Joseph and Alberta, they were fondly known by all as Joe and Bert.

The summer of his graduation, he was commissioned as an active duty lieutenant and they had their first child, Anne Marie. The following summer their son Joe followed, born near Elgin AFB in Florida. The following year, Michael was born at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio.

In late 1959, he was hired by IBM and the family returned to Delaware. By the time Joe was 33 and Bert was 32, the family had grown to include Kevin, Mary and Elizabeth. At a time when most of their friends were moving to suburbia, the Melloy’s moved into the City to a Georgian brick home on Delaware Avenue in the Highlands and would live there for 47 years. They restored the home and installed an English-style formal brick garden, reflecting their love of evening and weekend gardening and Bert’s expertise in all things horticulture. Their home was often on various local charities’ house and garden tours. They recreated an old-style bar between the kitchen and formal dining room, replete with a large mural of a Manhattan bar scene he painted. Young Kevin painted a floral-inspired mural on the stairway walls from the front hall to the third floor. The energy and occasional chaos of six children was balanced by their loving animal friends, with dogs named Whiskey, Shady, Stoli and Muffin and cats with names like Missy, Petunia and Favorite and others invented and re-invented as circumstances changed.

He served in many roles with IBM: as a Systems Engineer, Marketing Representative, Manager of Wilmington’s Marketing and Datacenter, and as a Higher Education Consultant. His clients included the DuPont Company, the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and the University of Virginia. He also obtained significant IBM grants for unique higher education projects at the Universities of Delaware and Virginia.

Busy with raising six children, careers at IBM and Winterthur, respectively, volunteer work, and entertaining, Joe and Bert still knew how to get some “couple time,” in the evenings, meeting friends at Constantinou’s or the Columbus Inn, driving down to the Chesapeake or to Sambo’s Tavern for a casual dinner. They would get properly dressed, check that everything was in order, then tell the children they were “slipping out” for a bit. When they went out – to a restaurant or party or just to the Post Office or to shop – that meant he was in a coat and tie and Bert was dressed with style. Manners without flash or pretense. Old School.

When Bert announced she wanted do less meal prep, he took a gourmet class and occasionally treated the family to Beef Stroganoff and Chicken Kiev. He arranged his afternoon work schedule to make it to the sidelines and bleachers to cheer on his children at Wilmington Friends School. He scheduled business trips’ times to see Elizabeth playing lacrosse at Sweet Briar College. Decades later, he and Bert were on the stands at Archmere games cheering on two of their granddaughters Hillary and Meaghan Fitts and drove to Connecticut to see his two grandsons Crawford and Maxwell Butler compete. When he learned his grandsons were making their first train trip to Wilmington, he donned his dress slacks, coat and tie and took a train to Philadelphia to surprise them for the final leg of the trip. For a very busy person, he always put his family first and made it a priority to “show up.”

After retiring from IBM in 1993, he established Technology Planning Group, LLC, a consultancy for projects serving local inner city Charter Schools, Wilmington University and other area colleges and universities.

A very active Rotarian, he served as the President of the Rotary Club of Wilmington and was the recipient of the 2002 John F. Newnam Service Award and the Paul Harris Fellow award for his active service over a forty-year period.

His community service reflected his appreciation of the arts, education and historic preservation.  As President of the Highlands Community Association in the 1970s, he worked with neighbors to defeat two development projects that would have adversely impacted the Highlands. He wrote grant applications and helped fundraise for local non-profit organizations, such as the Friends of Wilmington Parks, the Patio at Archmere, and the Delaware Art Museum. For more than fifteen years, he served as the Treasurer of the University of Delaware’s Library Associates. He also served on the Boards of the Padua Academy and the Kentmere Nursing Home.

He was particularly proud of two historic preservation projects related to the arts: the restoration of the Patio at Archmere and the Sugar Bowl Pavilion in Brandywine Park.

Recognizing the importance of Archmere in his life, he served as President of the Alumni Association, was recognized as “Alumnus of the Year” in 1993, and was co-founder and chair of the “Friends of the Patio,” a group dedicated to the restoration of the historic mansion originally built on the Archmere estate between 1916 – 1918 by John Jakob Raskob – the DuPont Company’s and General Motors’ financial genius and developer of the Empire State Building.  As restoration continued, the estate, including the Patio (mansion house), Manor (garage and servants’ quarters), iconic yellow-brick road and ornate estate fencing and gates were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. Today, the Patio serves as a popular venue for lectures, musical and artistic events.

Originally built in 1902, the Sugar Bowl Pavilion had fallen into disrepair after decades of neglect. While on the Board of the Friends of Wilmington Parks, Joe was the lead fundraiser in a 10-year project to rebuild and restore the Sugar Bowl. The project was completed in 2016, and since then it has returned as a popular venue for free musical and artistic events, restored as one of Wilmington’s iconic architectural landmarks.

He was known for doing sketches of friends at the Mendenhall Inn, Buckley’s Tavern, Cromwell’s, the Columbus Inn and Rocco’s. He produced the pen and ink illustrations for Daniel DeKalb Miller’s book, “Chateau Country: Du Pont Estates in the Brandywine Valley.”

Joe was very active in the Delaware Republican party for nearly fifty years. During that time he managed Francis M. Jornlin, Sr.’s 1972 campaign as well as his wife Bert’s run for City Council in 1996. Along with Bert, he also served as a delegate multiple years at statewide Republican political conventions.

Joe will be remembered for the love of his wife Bert, his family and friends, his gentle and kind nature, and his creativity and passion for the arts and history. He is survived by his six children: daughter Anne Gould of Barboursville, Virginia, son Joseph P. Melloy, Jr. of Coronado Beach, California and his wife Diane, son Michael T. Melloy of Wilmington, son Kevin G. A. Melloy of Wilmington and Palmer, Puerto Rico, daughter Mary C. Fitts and her husband Scott of Wilmington, and daughter Elizabeth Melloy Lyons and her husband Greg of Ridgefield, Connecticut. Surviving grandchildren are Annabelle Gould, Hillary and Meaghan Fitts, and Crawford and Maxwell Butler.

He was predeceased by his wife Alberta A. Melloy, granddaughter Eloise Dodge Gould, son-in-law Alexander W. Gould, his sister Margaret Guziak of Grand Junction, Colorado, and his brother Fr. “Jack” Melloy, OSFS, of Wilmington.  His sibling survivor is Michael Francis Melloy and his wife Patricia of Wilmington.