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SIERRA VISTA — An 82-year-old man, described as a “rare person,” a thorn in the side of elected officials and someone with vision who helped build the foundation of Sierra Vista, died this weekend in Tucson.
For three decades, Joseph “Joe” Cracchiolo ran the family business — Bella Vista Ranches and Bella Vista Water Co. in Sierra Vista. He moved his family to the area to operate the companies started by his father, Andrea, and dad’s partner, Art Sbrana.
“Papa (Andrea) Cracchiolo came to the area in the early 1950s and got his sons involved,” said Judy Gignac, who became general manager of development and water company operation after Joe Cracchiolo retired in the 1980s.
The former Army judge advocate, who served in the Korean War, was described by Gignac as a businessman who saw community involvement as critical to ensuring the city properly grew.
 Joe Cracchiolo (Herald/Review file photo) |
Many of the commercial sites “up and down Fry Boulevard,” much of it on the city’s West End, came about because of Cracchiolo, Gignac said.
Before becoming known as Bella Vista Ranches or Bella Vista Water Co., the business was called Cochise Enterprise. Bella Vista Water Co. is now owned by Algonquin Water Resources.
Cracchiolo’s commitment to the community included the donation of land for the Sierra Vista campus for Cochise College and the University of Arizona South, property for the current Buena High School, land on which Bella Vista Elementary School is sited, and property “for a number of local churches,” she said. The library at Cochise College is named in honor of Cracchiolo’s father, Andrea, who was no slouch when it came to being a giver to the community.
Community involvement also included Cracchiolo’s wife, Patty, who was instrumental in creating the Buena High School’s Odyssey of the Mind program, Gignac said.
However, there was a side to Joe that made elected officials cringe, and that was his interest in the goings-on in city hall, Gignac said.
“He was always interested in city government, wanting it to be good government,” she said.
He was not bashful in not only taking on Sierra Vista’s city government, and he enjoyed his bouts with the State Trust Land Department, Gignac said.
She said Cracchiolo was a “thorn in the side of elected officials.”
Bella Vista Ranches, which today is a much smaller operation than it was in the past, developed a number of subdivisions in Sierra Vista.
Perhaps one of the best known subdivison that carries out the family’s Italian heritage is Montebello, with street names such as Marconi, De Medici, Vespucci, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Galileo drives, and Enrico, Garibaldi and Toscanni avenues.
Joe DeFrancesco, a longtime friend and attorney who began to work for Cracchiolo soon after retiring as the staff judge advocate on Fort Huachuca, said that Cracchiolo’s death “came as a shock,” noting about two years ago he attended his friend’s 80th birthday celebration in Tucson.
“Joe was very bright, very intelligent and had a lot of vision for the future of Sierra Vista’s development,” said DeFrancesco, who was once a colonel who headed up the Army Communications Command’s legal office.
As Sierra Vista grew, it was the Cracchiolos who became one of the larger developers in the area, DeFrancesco said.
Under Joe, there was a constant review of property that could be purchased, to include the Southern Pacific right-away, to be used for commercial development, as well as different ranch properties that could be used for subdivisions, he said.
Looking back on Cracchiolo’s life, DeFrancesco said there are so many memories that they all seem to collapse together, making it difficult to paint a complete picture of the man.
One outstanding memory DeFrancesco has of Cracchiolo is that he was “instrumental in creating the local United Way.” Seeing a need to help the less fortunate, Cracchiolo knew a United Way dedicated to charities in the area was needed.
“He was very generous,” DeFrancesco said.
Although Cracchiolo had a lot of vision, not everyone shared his long-range view, sometimes to the community’s detriment, DeFrancesco said. But Cracchiolo would soldier on, always looking for ways to help.
“He loved this community,” DeFrancesco said.
Another of Cracchiolo’s friends, Natalio Sabal of Douglas, knew of Cracchiolo’s dedication because of their commitment to Cochise College.
“He was not only a dear family friend, he was a dear friend to the community,” Sabal said. “He gave so much of himself.”
Sabal served on the Cochise College board for more than 21 years. During that time, he said, Cracchiolo was “a good friend of Cochise College.”
Calling him “dynamic, stubborn and full of ideas,” Sabal said Cracchiolo’s dedication was of a person who always had wide-open arms that encompassed his family, friends and charities.
“He’s a rare person that comes around only once in a lifetime,” Sabal said.
SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
SERVICES PENDING
A formal obituary concerning Joseph “Joe” Cracchiolo, as well as funeral services, are pending. According to friend Judy Gignac, he is survived by his wife, Patty, and their children, as well as his brothers, Andy and Dan, and his sisters, Mary Ann Augustine and Rose Collins, as well as a number of nephews and nieces.
Beth Mason wrote on May 8, 2009 2:36 PM: