By Jane Smith
HIGHLAND BEACH — Joseph A. Sarubbi, who cherished his IBM role as part of the self-described “wild ducks,” died peacefully at home surrounded by his family on Dec. 29.
He was 84, dying from complications of diabetes, said Linda Campbell, one of his seven children.
“Family meant everything to him,” she said. For 14 recent years, he rented three houses in Myrtle Beach, S.C. That summer week was sacred to all 45 family members, she said.
A native of Yonkers, N.Y., Mr. Sarubbi was one of five children of James V. and Jennie (Cosentino) Sarubbi. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War as a radio repairman in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
His favorite wartime story was when his ship docked outside of Naples, Italy, and he met his maternal grandparents. “Kids were running through the streets, yelling ‘Giuseppe from America is here’,” Campbell said.
“He traveled a lot for IBM, but when he came home on the weekends, he always had goodies for us kids,” she said. That was in the day when airlines actually gave you something when you traveled overseas, she said, adding that he often brought home travel kits for his children.
He also coached Little League baseball for his sons, taught the kids to play hearts, enjoyed his Tuesday night poker games with his buddies and was a season ticket holder to the Miami Dolphins for 27 years. He loved the Dan Marino era, Campbell said.
Most of his career was spent at IBM, starting there in New York in 1952. In 1980, Mr. Sarubbi moved to Boca Raton to be part of the original team that developed the IBM personal computer. When he thought about those days, the highlight of his career, he described the team of 12 as “wild ducks,” flying out of formation with the strict controls of IBM.
His daughter also recalled that when he developed the IBM XT (extended technology) in 1983, the first PC with a built-in hard drive, many analysts criticized him for offering a computer with 10 megabytes, as having too much storage space. But today, emails are often far larger.
But “Mr. IBM” never owned a computer, she said. He worked with them all day at the office and didn’t want to be around them at home.
Mr. Sarubbi retired from IBM in 1986 but went on to work for other information technology companies.
He leaves behind his beloved wife, Joan, of nearly 63 years; his children, James Sarubbi, Donna (George) Kopa, Joseph (Colleen) Sarubbi, William (Maggie) Sarubbi, Robert (Lori) Sarubbi, and Joan (Joe) Soltysiak; 19 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and siblings Mary (Samuel) Marotta, Peter (Sabina) Sarubbi and Florence (Steven) Loia.
A funeral Mass was held in Highland Beach, followed by burial at the Boca Raton Cemetery and Mausoleum. Instead of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Mr. Sarubbi’s name to: Diabetes Research Institute (http://www.diabetesresearch.org).
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