Joseph Valerio Torres

Joseph Valerio Torres was born in Cuba on December 9, 1907. He was the oldest of seven children. In 1928, Joe traveled by himself to study in the United States. To help support himself, he worked on Wall Street as a “runner” delivering messages between investment companies. He continued working in this position through the stock market “crash” in 1929 and through the depression. In 1936, Joseph V. Torres married Dorothy Suzanne Taylor and it was the beginning of a 68 year marriage and a “very happy life together.” In 1938, Joe went to work for the B.T. Babbitt Soap Company in NYC as Assistant Export Manager. After the U.S. entered the war, Joe joined the Navy in January, 1943. As a 1st Class Yeoman, he shipped out from Camp Pendleton to Pearl Harbor. On the way to Pearl Harbor, the ship received news of the death of President Roosevelt and Joe remembers sailing in darkness to Pearl Harbor. While waiting for orders to go to the South Pacific, the war ended and Joe returned home on the USS North Carolina. Back in NYC, Joe returned to his old job at B.T. Babbitt as Assistant Export Manager. In 1949, he was promoted to Export Manager. In 1951, Joe traveled to Sao Paolo, Brazil to open a soap factory for B.T. Babbitt and he became head of all South American operations for the company until he retired in 1965.

Joe and Dorothy returned to the U.S. from Brazil and made their retirement home in West Palm Beach, FL where they enjoyed the company of many friends. They spent the next 40 years traveling around the world visiting over 90 countries. Joe and Dorothy were members of the Episcopal Church of Bethesda by the Sea in Palm Beach for over 40 years and in recent years, Joe enjoyed spiritual care given by St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palm Beach Gardens. In 2003, Joe and Dorothy moved to Devonshire, a retirement community in PGA National where Dorothy predeceased Joe in August of 2004 at age 92. In 2004, Joe moved to Chatsworth in Palm Beach Gardens where he enjoyed visits from his family and many friends.

He kept busy staying current with the new events of the day and the ups and downs of the stock market. After a long and most interesting life, Joe will be sadly missed by his nieces, nephew and all who loved him.

Left to cherish his memory are his nieces; Maria Arencibia of Port St. Lucie, Alina Hiser of Ft. Pierce, Suzanne Menges of Moorestown, NJ, Diana Folds Grant of Atlanta, GA, Juanita Torres of Miami, Estela Soto of Clewiston and Dora Estevez of Cuba and nephew, Ernesto Frades of Pembroke Pines.

A funeral service will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, May 16, 2014 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 3395 Burns Road, Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Those wishing to make an expression of sympathy are asked to consider the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and School. Arrangements under the direction of Quattlebaum Funeral, Cremation and Event Center, West Palm Beach, FL.