Our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Joe J. Manzo was born March 7, 1938 and died September 4, 2026. He was born and raised in Wilmington, CA. He attended Wilmington Park Elementary School, Wilmington Junior High School and graduated from Phineas Banning High School, class of ‘57.

One of his earliest jobs was driving the delivery truck for his Uncle George DeLaTorre and his Uncle Albert Guerrero. He made deliveries for the Harbor Canning Company which later became Juanita’s Foods. He started his career in a small machine shop, then moved on to work for Boeing making airplane parts.

He served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves at Camp Pendleton for five summers as a radio operator.

He taught Machine Shop for 32 years, mentoring many students who found a career pathway after graduating from high school. During each semester, his students would complete projects in order to learn many skills. One of his well-known projects was the custom desk nameplate. If you were given a nameplate, you were a member of an elite group.

He always had an interest in how things work and, by the time he was at Banning, he had years of experience designing, fabricating, and repairing just about anything. He could often be found scrambling for any piece of scratch paper to sketch out his designs. Many times, he would leave Friday night dinner at Chin’s Chinese Restaurant with a few paper napkins depicting his Banning belt buckle design.

We grew up firmly convinced that he could make or fix anything. He encouraged us to step into his world of tools, machines and metal. Because of his teaching, we gained many skills that other daughters might not have had the opportunity to learn.

Among his various interests was gardening. He grew everything that sparked his interest-from oak trees sprouted from acorns at the University of Redlands, fig trees, a loquat tree from seeds Celina brought him to pineapples grown from cuttings.

His favorite plant of all was the rose. He spent many hours working in the rose garden at the Banning Residence Museum. Every Wednesday, he would tend the heirloom plants, nurturing them and enjoying their colorful beauty.

He served from 2000-2007 as the president of the Southern California Live Steamers based in Wilson Park, Torrance. He was part of the group that laid the track and landscaped the yard. He built a ⅓” scale steam engine and Pacific Electric Red car which carried passengers around the track. Run days at the track were often family events where he would prepare his signature hot dogs and deliver them via his Pacific Electric Red Car.

He is survived by his wife, Rosalie Manzo, daughter Annamarie Manzo and son-in-law George Melgarejo, daughter Laurie Tanner, and daughter Celina Swift and son-in-law Scott Swift. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Anthony Melgarejo, Gabriel Melgarejo, Emmalie Tanner, and James Tanner.