Joseph A. Verderber

Joseph A. Verderber died of heart failure on April 3, 2018.
Joe was born in 1938 to the late Joe and Dorothy Verderber and was an only child. He was one of the first winners of a National Merit Scholarship in 1956 and attended The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joe married the late Anita (nee Barto) in 1960 and they had three children; Joe Jr. (Linda), Dr. Lisa Verderber, MD (Joe Dellorto) and Paul (Mary Ann). They have four granddaughters; Alice and Eliza Verderber, and Grace and Claire Dellorto.
At MIT, Joe was awarded MIT's highest undergraduate honor, the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, for his student leadership. A National Science Foundation fellowship funded his graduate work.
Joe worked for the Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation (now AM International) for almost 30 years. His assignments started in R&D and grew to general management. He was named AM's Inventor of the Year in 1980 and he had several patents. He served as President of AM's Varityper Division before its sale. He spent the last ten years of his working career with General Scanning, Inc. where he headed their Laser Systems Division. After retirement, he served on the Board of Directors of Virtek Vision International, a Canadian public company, and served on its audit committee.
In high school Joe was a self-confessed nerd. He was a journalist, debater, and orator. At MIT he got into sports and was a championship saber fencer. Over the years he became a skier who won NASTAR medals, a tennis player and platform tennis player at inter-club levels, and a runner who, among other things, completed the 99th Boston Marathon. Late in life he became a golfer and described himself as more avid than skilled.
Joe loved to teach, and regularly traveled to Silicon Valley to do "financial boot camps" for people in the semiconductor equipment industry. He also served as president of the trustees for his homeowners' association for over ten years. He created and maintained their accounting spreadsheets for calculations of reserves and budgets. Joe was also an active volunteer in his parishes, serving most recently as lector and Eucharistic minister.
Before Anita's death in 2016, they loved to travel in the US and abroad, and took both ocean and river cruises. Their last trip included Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca in Peru and was one of their favorites.
There will be a visitation from 5 to 7p.m. FRIDAY, April 6 at the Billow FAIRLAWN Chapel, 85 N. Miller Rd. Mass of Christian burial will be held SATURDAY, April 7, 2018 at 10:30a.m. at St. Victor Catholic Church, 3435 Everett Rd., Richfield, OH. There will be a public visitation at the church beginning at 9:30a.m. SATURDAY before mass. Joe asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Seidman Cancer Center of University Hospitals in Cleveland, 11100 Euclid Ave. Cleveland, OH, 44106. Private interment will be at All Saints Cemetery, Northfield, OH at a later date. To share a Memory, Send a Condolence or Light a Candle, visit the Tribute Wall at www.billowfuneralhomes.com (Billow FAIRLAWN Chapel)