Joseph J. Cereghino

Mr. Joseph J. Cereghino, 86, of Seattle, WA, loving husband, father and grandfather, died March 5, 2015, in Las Vegas, NV having resided there the last six years.

Born June 26, 1928, in Chicago, IL, to Joseph and Susan Cereghino, his formative years were spent on Chicago’s North Side, graduating from Senn High School, the January Class of 1946. Joe was active in Senn’s Student Council, also a Careers Club participant and Senn News Booster, a band and mixed chorus member, and a Senn Marshal—dedicated to maintaining and improving the Senn campus. Classes at Senn followed a split graduation schedule because the nation was at war and upon graduating Joseph enlisted in the Army. Joe did a tour in Japan as a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne, a part of the American occupation forces at the end of World War II. Upon returning home, Joseph married his high school sweetheart Shirley in 1949, and he followed his father into Chicago’s newspaper pressrooms. Joe and Shirley purchased a small, comfortable apartment in Skokie, IL, and started their family, three sons—Stephen, Philip and David, all born while living in that two bedroom starter home. The young family attended J.C. O’Hair’s North Shore Church, where Joe heard the message of God’s grace rightly divided for the first time. In 1956 the family relocated to Portland, OR, seeking better working opportunities with the Portland Journal and to reunite with Joe’s older sister and her family. In 1959 a newspaper strike took the family to Seattle, WA, where Joe would have a successful twenty-plus years in the pressroom at the Seattle Times before retiring in 1992. While in Seattle, Joe and family attended Berean Bible Church (now Shoreline Berean Bible Church). In their retirement years, Joe and Shirley spent their time “RV-ing” with friends, visiting and nurturing eight grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren, living in their adopted home town of San Diego, and attending Faith Bible Fellowship in Santee, CA.

Joe had many immeasurable intangibles. He came from humble beginnings and in turn was a humble man. He was rich in family and friends. Joe knew and appreciated God’s saving grace and was a fully committed supporter of Grace Gospel Fellowship, Grace Ministries International, and Grace Bible College. The family requests that in lieu of flowers you honor Joe with a memorial gift in his name to Grace Bible College (1011 Aldon Street SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49509, attn. Steve Hilbrands; or online at www.gbcol.edu, follow the link to memorial gift under Giving).