Joe Toro

Joe Toro, 86, of North Platte and formerly of Ogallala, died April 19, 2015, in Great Plains Health. Joe Toro was born in Plainfield, NJ on May 23, 1928 to Julian and Euphemia (Guzman) Toro. He moved to Warren Township in 1932, to a converted chicken coop. Joes father had planned to build a house from lumber and windows salvaged from a wrecked house he had purchased. However, one day they rented a truck to haul the goods to the mountains. When they got there, someone had stolen all the lumber and windows. It was a sad day, because Joe had to pull most of the nails from the wood, even at six years old. The family lived in the converted chicken coop until 1936. By then Joes father had built a six room colonial house around the chicken coop which included an inside water well, running water, an inside bathroom and electricity (which became available in our area in 1938). The house still stands, is occupied and in good shape. The place was 2 1/2 acre's and today would be considered a small farm. Through the years from 1938 to 1944 we had chickens, two cows, two goats, two pigs, a flock of pigeons, a bunch of squab, a one acre garden and about 350 rabbits. The rabbits and squab were for sale as meat, which was war rationed by the EPA. Joes job was to kill, skin and prepare the rabbits and squab for pickup every Thursday. 1942 found Joes brother, Lt. Julian, in the service as a B29 navigator in the air force, Joes father was a grinder machinist at Mack Motors, working every day for the war effort making axels for tanks thus leaving most chores for Joes mother, brother and two sisters. In 1944 Joes father built an unattached two car garage. Joe soon learned how to use a hammer as a roofer and paint brush as a painter. Joe became a fairly good roofer and painter, skills that would come in handy in later life. Joe began his first paying job the summer of 1944 cutting grass for a large estate in Warren at $.75/hr. In the fall of 1944, Joe began playing a harmonica in a hillbilly band for a barn dance held every Saturday night for which he earned good money. He played from 1944-45. During the school year of 1944 and the summer of 1945 Joe worked as a stock boy for Wall Drugs in Plainfield. At the time Wall Drugs was the largest drug store in NJ, much like todays Walgreens Drug stores that sold lots of dry goods besides drugs. The pay was $1/hour. Joe graduated from North Plainfield High, North Plainfield, NJ in 1946. On April, 1945, Joe had pre-enlisted in U.S. Navy for aviation electronics. However, since World War II was ending there was no need for more aviation personnel, so Joe was assigned to the Hospital Corp. Joe spent most of duty treating men severely burned, mostly by flame throwers. Joe was discharged on April, 1948, from Brooklyn Navy Yard. After discharge from the U.S. Navy, Joe took advantage of the GI Bills 36 months of free education and earned an associate degree as an electronic technician. Joe married Lois Mae Knopp on May 24, 1952. They had four children, Gary (April, 1956) and Laurie, Ventura, CA; Joan (October, 1957) and Michael Davis, North Platte, NE; Beverley (January 1960) North Platte, NE and Ann (1964) and Don Lopez, Elizabeth, CO. Joe went to work for Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J. in June of 1952 where he was employed for 17 years. This time included work transfers to labs in North Andover, MA and Whippany NJ, then back to Murray Hill, where he originally started. Joes main assignment was designing capacitors for special projects. This included a special temperature coefficient capacitor design for the Princess touch tone phone which had failed outdoor tests for the 1964 Worlds Fair. The other important project was converting the millions of aluminum can paper capacitors used by Western Electric to lower cost metallized Mylar both for reduction in size and the first self-healing capacitors. The other very big project was the design of a low cost swaged capacitor for the first automatic caller identification system. One capacitor was required for each telephone line. This resulted in a savings for Western Electric of over $12,000,000 annually. Joe received four patents for capacitors during his career. Joe was relocated to Ogallala, NE in June, 1969 as chief engineer for TRW Communications. The job required considerable travel. Assignments through the years included introducing new products in McCook, NE, acquiring of Monrovia, CA plant, managing new products at a plant in Guadalajara, Mexico, and as liaison for a plant in San Palo, Brazil. In addition, frequent travel to British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and to Montreal, Quebec, Canada plus considerable travel in the United States. Shizuki purchased TRW Capacitors in 1987. Joe continued his employment with them working for a total of 23 years and retired in April, 1992. Joe and Lois Mae were married 43+ years when she died suddenly and unexpectedly at the Nebraska Heart Institute, while undergoing a heart catheterization in October, 1995. Joe met Charlotte Olson in 1997, whose husband had died one week after Lois, from cancer. They were married on June 27, 1998. Joe acquired new stepsons and their families. Sons are Darrel (Mary), from Kingsville, TX; Kent, Ogallala, NE; David (Shelly), Ogallala, NE and Kevin (Ofielia), Aurora, CO. Joe loved the 45 years spent in Ogallala and said it couldn't have been better. It was a good place to live and to raise children and also provided him a great opportunity to do extensive travel. Due to the restrictions from operations that didn't go too well, Joe had to give up some of his favorite pastimes, golf and travel and most activities over the past five years. Survivors include his wife Charlotte Toro of North Platte; and his children: Gary (Laurie) Toro of Ventura, Cal.; Joan (Michael) Davis of North Platte; Beverley Toro of North Platte; and Ann (Don) Lopez of Elizabeth, Colo. Step-children: Darrel (Mary) Olson of Kingsville, TX, Kent and David (Shelly) Olson, all of Ogallala; and Kevin (Ofielia) Olson of Aurora, CO. Also fourteen grandchildren and step-grandchildren; fifteen great-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren. Visitation will be Wednesday, April 22, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Thursday, April 23, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Draucker Funeral Home. The Funeral Service will be Friday, April 24, at 10 a.m., in the Ogallala First Congregational, United Church of Christ. Rev. Linda Martin will officiate. Interment is in the Ogallala Cemetery with military honors. In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established to the First Congregational Church.

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