
Joseph T. Giacinto

Tempus fugit.
Obituary
The Caribbean Sea has lost one of its fondest admirers. Joseph T. Giacinto, “Uncle Joe” to me and “GUJ” Great Uncle Joe (a title he coined himself) to his grandnieces, left this blue planet on December 22, 2024, at 3:15 p.m. In his final moments I was at his bedside holding his left hand and holding his right was his friend and faithful nurse Latresia Graham who lovingly spoiled and cared for him during the last 3.5 years of his life.
For those who knew Uncle Joe well I guess it was fitting that he left this world with 2 women at his bedside! But I’ll get back to that side of him a bit later.
Uncle was born on June 21, 1942 to Mathilda Mano and Joseph Giacinto in Bayside, Queens, New York. He was the younger brother to John and Michael. He attended Sacred Heart Elementary School, went on to attend St. Francis Preparatory School where he was a member of the swim team, and finished his education at the University of Notre Dame where he played Rugby, participated in ROTC Marine Corps training, and graduated in 1964 with a BS in Economics.
From there, for 13 months, he faced the horrors of war first hand in Vietnam, north of Da Nang, leading a platoon of Marines in an AmTrac vehicle patrolling rivers and their surrounding areas. The only upside of that experience was him purchasing a brand new, dark green Porsche at a great price from some random car dealer he stumbled across in Da Nang who knew how to take money from young Marines! Following that tour of duty, he drove his new Porsche from New York to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton where he trained young Marines in the operation of AmTracs. It was at Camp Pendleton, in 1968, that Uncle learned to scuba dive, a skill that would come to be a defining part of his life. One of his favorite stories to recount was about the small house he shared on the beach near Camp Pendleton with a few other Marines that was paid for by the U.S. government because they were short of base housing! I’m guessing if the walls of that house could talk, they would be tongue tied at what they witnessed while Uncle lived there!
At the end of his Marine Corps service, having achieved the rank of Captain, he went on to be recruited by IBM as a salesman for their early office computer systems and went to work for them in Detroit, MI. Another of his favorite tales was when his first manager at IBM told him he had to get rid of his Porsche because it was “unseemly” to be seen driving that car around Detroit (I guess he thought it would be bad for business)! One guess where uncle told him to shove his head!!??? The Porsche stayed and Uncle was awarded as their top salesman in his area until IBM made another bad decision in 1972 regarding Uncle which became the making of another of his favorite tales. Seemingly, that year IBM decided to cut Uncle’s pay because they had had a bad year. When they tried to sell that line of bull to him as one of their top grossing salesman, he promptly went to Chicago to have a sit down meeting with senior management. He told them at that meeting they needed to reconsider their compensation decision for him because he couldn’t possibly call his father in New York and tell him that IBM had cut his pay and he hadn’t quit. They didn’t and so quit he did!
That was the start of Uncle beginning to live his very unconventional life which was spurred on by a fateful call from my dad, his older brother Mike! That call included an invitation to move to the British Virgin Islands, take a job paying a “generous” $35 a week (plus room and board of course!) and become the Resident Manager of a tiny island hotel called Marina Cay dubbed, in my growing up years there, “The Island You’ll Never Forget”. These days Marina Cay is a shadow of its wonderful former self and is just a bar/restaurant. Back in 1972 when Uncle arrived it was a tiny jewel of a “boutique” hotel consisting of a scattering of A-frame cottages, each with its own deck and a devastatingly beautiful vista, an unrivaled anchorage and a reputation for having the best food in the territory. The generator shut down right after dinner and it was strictly candles and oil lamps and an “honor system bar” for the late-night crowd.
Uncle Joe’s quarters on Marina Cay were called “Duck Hall”, right off the main jetty and again if the walls could talk the tales they would tell about his years spent there! Two memorable things he gave Marina Cay guests were scuba diving classes and excursions and an absolutely amazing, very large saltwater fish tank on display in the hotel living room for all to enjoy! One of my early and favorite memories of growing up with Uncle Joe on Marina Cay were of him telling me and my older brother Joey, when we got home from school on Tortola, to put on our masks and fins and go out to the barrier reef surrounding the Cay and find him new and wonderful creatures for the fish tank and we did! That tank was a sight to behold and was a collection of amazing sea life – colorful fish of all kinds, corals, crabs, baby spiney lobsters and eels, and Uncle’s prize – a baby octopus that he would hand feed for the guests to watch during cocktail hour! All creatures were let go back onto the reef when they outgrew the tank, a testament to Uncle’s deep love and respect for all marine creatures.
In 1975 Uncle became a small business owner when he founded DIVE BVI Ltd., a company that he would build over 32 years to become the largest dive operation in the British Virgin Islands with a fleet of dive boats, several retail locations and a large, skilled workforce of talented dive instructors and merchandisers. Uncle once told me that you didn’t make money taking people diving, although in the early years he loved to, you made money on flippers, masks, t-shirts and sunblock! Dive BVI shops were always filled with great things to buy and take home to remember your vacation with! He also was the proprietor of The Pub on Tortola where he lived and worked for several years although mostly, he considered Virgin Gorda and his lovely house on Windy Hill to be his home. Uncle hit a home run with Dive BVI Ltd. and its sale in 2007 allowed him to retire, safely looked after, in the twilight of his life. I know it was his proudest achievement and was forever part of the fabric of what made him, him.
Uncle was not a one-dimensional man. He had many loves in no particular order – yes, women and his many, many wonderful friends the world over; but also, bottle diving, coin collecting; he was the captain of the BVI Rugby Club from 1974 – 1976, a Notre Dame football junkie, a member of The BVI Mountain Bike Club, President of BVI Dive Operators Association, a hot tub dweller, a lover of eating pasta and White Castle hamburgers, a Heineken, Coke and Dr. Pepper drinking recreational drug user (only “very occasionally” in his younger years!), an owner of many wonderful yellow labradors and other pups and one cat named Cato (who were his “children), and of course being a Marine - Once a Marine always a Marine.
I asked Uncle a few weeks before he died if he believed in Heaven and he said yes which made me glad because I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that many people Uncle loved deeply were there to welcome him and I take great comfort in knowing that one day I will see him again, there in the great, beautiful, blue beyond.
Uncle is survived by his niece Adrienne Lynch, his nephew by marriage Martin Lynch, his sister-in-law Rosemary Giacinto, his great nieces Olivia, Francesca, and Michaela Lynch, his dog Smudge and his many, many dear friends who will never ever forget him.
Services & In Memoriam Gift Info
Celebrations of a life well lived:
Roman Catholic Funeral Mass
11:00 am on Friday, January 24, 2025
***Will also be live streamed.
Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church
1100 8th Avenue North
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 29582
https://www.olssnmb.com/
AND
Service of Remembrance, Interment of Ashes at Sea & Eating and Drinking Afterwards (of course!)
Monday, April 7, 2025
Virgin Gorda, BVI - Logistics shared later.
In lieu of flowers, if you wish to make donation in his name funds would be gratefully received by either:
VISAR (Virgin Island Search & Rescue) - Please make sure to annotate that VISAR Virgin Gorda Base in the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour is the beneficiary of your donation.
https://visar.org/get-involved#donate
or
ARC – Animal Rescue Corps Virgin Gorda
https://www.gofundme.com/f/vmdh8-arc-virgin-gorda-help-the-homeless-animals
or send a USD check payable to ARC Virgin Gorda and mail it to: ARC Virgin Gorda, PO Box 304039, St. Thomas, USVI 00803
For U.S. funeral questions email afglynch68@gmail.com for BVI service questions email rosepqbvi@gmail.com
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Joe was my first boss back in 1983 when I was 16 years old. Scott Butler hired me to fill tanks at the Diveshop and Joe was the owner. There was 4 of us back then Joe, Scott( Dive instructor) Netchie( Shop retailer), Joe and Scott both went on to mentor me thru my younger years. Joe sent me for PADI instructor training and developed me to become one of the key Dive boat and Dive instructors for Dive BVI. I met some incredible people had some amazing memories because of Joe!
We did some amazing diving back in those days, he gave us the reigns to take the Diveboat ( Sea Cat) out and explore when days were slow or off season, we found some incredible dive sites in which we would take guests out and share with them some of those amazing sites. Joe liked to work hard and play hard. He always believed in educating his staff by sending us to workshops like: dive equipment training by Scuba Pro or CPR and First Aid training. He was always investing into the future as well. He would always buy new equipment dive gear, snorkel gear, new boats etc. We did promotional videos for advertising Dive BVI which was a blast! Dive BVI continued to grow from Joes vision, he opened up Leverick Bay, Peter Island and Marina Cay
He also opened Anegada for about 9 months and put me incharge of the operations out of Anegada Reef Hotel with Lowel Wheatley.
There are too many memories to share here but Joe was an incredible man and business man!Part of who I am today is because of Joe and his mentorship. I made a decision to leave Dive BVI in 1993 and move back to Canada. Joe shook my hand and said write a book...maybe I will one day.
It was an honor to have known Joe! Thanks for all the great times and memories Joe
God Bless and RIP!
We created the BVI 3s, Joe, Tudor and I, for a trip to Wales to watch a rugby international at Cardiff Arms Park. To raise funds we bet anyone who would take us on about the most ridiculous things, if we won the money went towards the trip, if we lost we had to pay the bet ourselves. Soon we had enough for three stylish green blazers bought by Joe in New York and added an especially designed badge for good measure. There were funds left over with which we shouted rounds at most of the local rugby clubs. During the trip we visited my mother in Pwllheli who told all her friends that Joe was Alan Alda from MASH. We also caught a rugby match at Bryn’s boarding school in Oswestry where on a freezing cold afternoon the boys were running around in shorts and t shirts. Joes reaction “and you pay for him to come here?”.
When he lived on Little Camanoe he would often drop into our house on the way home from Tortola to watch college football on tv long into the night, turning off the lights as he left by small boat to cross back to the island with Duffy by his side. Joes faithful companion loved to spend hours standing in the shallows trying to catch fish that swam by with his paw. One of Bryn’s proud memories being allowed to walk Duffy in the Tortola Annual Dog Show.
Joe was a great diver and we dove together many times around the islands. He qualified Bryn but insisted Ceri was too young to learn much to her annoyance. He made it up to her when she often stopped in at the pub with school friends on their way home by putting all their drinks and snacks on my tab.
His pig roasts were legendary, he would spend all day basting and turning then all night laughing and drinking with the many friends who came along to share the feast. Heads were sore the next day but it was well worth it.
After I left the BVI we stayed in touch and he visited us in Kew near London, in Woldingham Surrey and in Portsea Australia,often en route to a dive or biking holiday or simply because he was in the area. We stayed with him at Windy Hill on Virgin Gorda several times, the first in 1993 when he treated us to a room at Little Dix Bay to celebrate our engagement. He laughingly told us later that the dinner we covered for the three of us that night cost a great deal more - good one Joe! We saw the house evolve over the years but our time together always felt the same, sharing laughs, stories and drinks on the deck as the sun went down or swimming in his unique pool constructed between giant boulders while tossing stones to scare the goats who always came back.
It was an honour to know Joe, to share a small part of his remarkable life and to call him my friend. Our many happy memories will always be treasured.
Our love and condolences to you Adrienne and to all your family.
Grahame Boulter



Hill to MMRand W,where I stayed,he looked just like my first husband!!!
Almost thirty years ,my Favorite husband,George Field and I landed on Virgin Gorda,for a spell of Wonder.Lo and Behold,Joseph and Rose where right there,again.Friends!
Neither George or I dove,or were riding bikes and were allergic to dogs,BUT,nothing was more refreshing and FUN,than arguing with Joe..And by then,we had earned the right to refer to him as CUZ. Like Family!
Both George and Joseph have left us.But,I assure you that between Joe’s indomitable,sardonic wit and George Fields reasonable wisdom,I laughted a lot. Much Love,Susan
His love of Great Camanoe came over to me forcefully....... I enjoyed our brief friendship even though it was nearly 50 years ago now
.RIP Joe.
Memories came flooding back of the times we shared during the short two years that our paths crossed in the BVI 1975-77. We shared a love of the water, rugby, and other fine wild things.
Snapshots; A very physical game against the US Navy in Puerto Rico, a raucous ‘friendly’ against Antigua in Antigua. All courtesy of Air BVI’s DC3 – we paid for the fuel.
Foxy’s Wooden Boat Race – Madness!
Tammy and I made a pilgrimage to see Joe in 2008 – what was 31 years between true friends? It was a great pleasure a few years later to host him in Noosa, Australia on his way for a week’s diving in the Solomon Islands. I so wish there had been another chance.
As someone has said earlier in this place he was indeed a complex character. Educated and erudite with a wit that took no prisoners. He was one of the hardest and yet kindest friends I have known . A man one was privileged to have in their corner and we found a few didn’t we Joe?
“When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder, A
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.”
A big hole has just opened up in the universe
See you later Joe,
Hugh McGarry
Avalon Beach
NSW Australia

Rest in peace brother by way of the Marine corps. SemperFidelis Joe
I asked you once while on Guana Island, how do you know when the pomegranate is ripe. " No worry, the birds let you know" sarcastic laughter followed.
I will miss you mate. Sod you for leaving.
Godspeed, my friend. Thank you for your service.
Together with Graham Boulter (now in Australia) we spent many great moments on the rugby field and of course after that in the Pub.
I moved to New York in 1981 and Mike offered for me to stay in the loft in the village, no questions asked and no money to be paid. This was the Giaciento family signature. I last met Joe when I visited him in Florida some 15 years ago, again sharing our great moments together.
Joe had a strong personality and a man of no bullshit. He always called me "Fritsie the crazy dutch" I will remember Joe for ever and he has a eternal place in my heart.
Frits(ie) Vromen
Be happy in heaven Joe, reuniting with all your dogs.
In Virgin Gorda & my husband, Scott Butler (also deceased), ran the shop & boat SeaCat. Many great memories of Joe & his warm personality & generous spirit.
A man of great knowledge of the Ocean, very friendly with awesome stories. I met Joe in 2002 while conducting business together he was my first Big customer when I started my business "Working For You" and he gave me great tips on managing as well. He will be greatly missed by so many here in Virgin Gorda. Much Love to his family.
My deepest condolences ):
Duffy, his Labrador, had a can of Heineken every lunch time, "for his arthritis" :)