Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Sciortino, James Joseph November 2, 2009 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Robert Woolfitt http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008401 April 16, 2022, 8:30 pm Virginian-Pilot November 4 & December 13, 2009 VIRGINIA BEACH - James Joseph Sciortino, 65, of the 2400 block of Tanning Reeve Way, died Monday, Nov. 2, 2009 in a local hospital. He was a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and was the son of the late Salvatore and Mary Richard Sciortino. He was a resident of Virginia Beach since 1965. He served his country in the United States Navy and was a Vietnam veteran. He later was a Merchant Marine with the Military Sea Lift Command. Mr. Sciortino owned and operated the All Pet chain of pet stores and the Beach Board House surf shop. He formerly owned Sciortino Enterprises and was an honored member of the Virginia Beach Police Department and the Fraternal Order of Police He was a Roman Catholic and a Eucharistic minister and CCD teacher. He was the president of the St. Gregory the Great Men's Club for several years, and was an avid fisherman and surfer. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Kathleen Rose Kelley Sciortino of Virginia Beach; his daughter, Maria Virgilio and her husband Daniel of Aldie, Va.; his sons, James Patrick Sciortino and his wife Melissa of New Windsor, N.Y., and Anthony Sciortino of Leesburg, Va.; his sister, Annemarie Chrusciel of Virginia Beach; and his brothers, Joseph Sciortino of Virginia Beach and Paul Sciortino of Apex, N.C.; his grandsons, Nolan and Tristan Sciortino; many nieces and nephews. The Mass of Christian burial will be held Friday, Nov. 6, in St. Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church at 11 a.m. with entombment in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery. The Rosary will be recited in the Laskin Road chapel of H.D. Oliver Funeral Apts. Thursday at 7 p.m. followed by a visitation with the family. Memorial donations may be made to the Wounded Warriors Fund at woundedwarriorfund.org. Online condolences may be sent to the family at hdoliver.com. When Paul Sciortino paid his little brother James "Jim" Sciortino a late-summer visit, he said he saw a man who was content with his life and still driven by his passions. "His two big passions were surfing and his surf shop," said Paul Sciortino, 80, of Apex, N.C. He also like old-fashioned cars with wooden bodies. "He even finally got his woodie - a Ford that came with a kit to turn it into a woodie," his brother said. "It seemed like he had it all." But the fire that propelled Jim Sciortino to follow his passions with the equal intensity of his professional pursuits burnt out on Nov. 2. Suffering from an unexpected brain hemorrhage worsened by an extremely low blood platelet count, Sciortino died several hours after being rushed to the hospital. A 65-year-old who lived in Virginia Beach 44 years, Sciortino is survived by Kathleen Sciortino, his wife of 39 years, three children, two grandchildren and three siblings. "His wife and his sister said he really had no pain when he passed," Paul Sciortino said of Jim, who was the youngest of six siblings from the big New York family. Sciortino's death shocked his family, friends and employees of his retail outlets All-Pet pet stores and Beach Board House, which opened in May. But the industrious man left behind a legacy of public service and professionalism that's sure to be long remembered in his adopted hometown. Sciortino's resume is as impressive as it is lengthy and varied. He was a Navy man who served in the Vietnam War before returning to Virginia Beach and becoming a Merchant Marine. He also served as a motorcycle cop for the Virginia Beach Police Department along with his older brother, Terry, who died in 1978 after a long bout with Hodgkin's Disease. But Sciortino's longest-lasting professional pursuit was the owning and operation of All-Pet, which he and his wife opened in 1974. Currently, All-Pet has two locations at Hilltop and Red Mill Commons. His most recent venture, Beach Board House, combined his business savvy with his passion for surfing. The shop's emphasis is almost exclusively on surfboards, a departure from other Beach surf shops that also sell fashions, accessories and other forms of board riding equipment. Only two local shapers - Austin Saunders of Austin Surfboards and Steve A. Morris of S.A.M. Surfboards - sell their designs at the 19th Street shop. Sciortino was also a deeply religious man - a devout Roman Catholic who was a Eucharistic minister and long-time president of St. Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church's Men's Club. "Our father hosted spaghetti dinners at the church for years and years - and this was all homemade stuff, the sauces, everything," Paul Sciortino said. "These dinners would sometimes draw 1,500 people. Jim eventually took that over and ran it when our father stopped doing it." Soon after his death, loved ones gathered on the beach for a paddle-out, where his surfing buddies made a circle in the water and left flowers in his memory. Paul Sciortino said his little brother's religious beliefs have made his tragic passing just a little easier with which to cope. "Jim really was at peace with God and his lot in life," Paul Sciortino said. "And that's really all you can ask for." 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