Joseph M Gagliardi

Joe was a native of San Jose, California born on March 22, 1940 to the late Dominic and Josephine Gagliardi.

Joe was a long time resident of San Jose. He graduated in 1958 from Willow Glen High School. Joe was a local businessman and entrepreneur for many years.

Joe got his start in business by helping his father develop their ranch land into Apartments and many other real estate ventures at a very young age. He and his father worked closely together to create Gagliardi Bros Real Estate which Joe ran until his father’s death. He additionally owned Gagliardi Brothers Insurance which was a forerunner in Youth and Professional Sports insurance.

Joe was a pioneer in insurance for Closed Circuit boxing, Professional Boxing, and Youth Sports. In addition to his Successful accomplishments, Joe was the former owner of the Modesto Reds and San Jose Missions semi Professional Baseball teams.

Joe always loved sports and with it he found his calling! Through years of hard work he became President of the California League AAA baseball for 28 years, until he retired as well as the Vice President of the Pony Baseball Western zone for several years.

Joe was a visionary in the closed circuit promotion for boxing, he owned his own boxing promotions company, Entertainment by J & J and Garden City Boxing. He also worked closely with Bob Arum of Top Rank, Inc. and Don King of Don King Productions and many other boxing promoters nationwide.

He was very active with San Jose PAL, and was very active in local politics in San Jose and liked to campaign for local Politicians.

Joe was a mentor to many in the Sports Insurance field and worked with many Companies to create speciality insurance for Professional Boxing and for Signal Insurance for commercial establishments to show Professional Boxing events.

Joe's passion for Youth Baseball and the many endeavors he chose to devote himself to, we’re incredibly successful all due to his drive, ambition and love of sports.

While his business accomplishments are many, his greatest accomplishments were his 6 children, 10 grand children and 1 great grandson. He loved to play Yahtzee after a holiday dinner and watch “The Godfather” and “Godfather II” repeatedly with his family and laugh at the jokes that were made as to which of his children were like characters in the movie. He loved to watch old Westerns and was a History buff. He was a huge Yankees fan and thoroughly enjoyed watching their games with his sons and grandsons.

Joe was preceded in death by his parents, Dominic and Josephine Gagliardi, brother Donald Gagliardi and sister Donna Minardi.

He is survived by his 6 children, Dominic (Maile), Teresa, Joe, Jr., Vince, Nicolas (Haydee) and Matthew. His grandchildren Dominic, Vitto, Marco, Rajan, Gia, Joey, Luke, Franco, Giada, Giovanni and great grandson, Naveen. He is survived by his beloved little Sister Shirley Gagliardi~Ruzzo, His former wives Ginny Lico and Colleen Bucci. He is additionally survived by many nieces and nephews.

Private Services will be held in San Jose, California. A public Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.