By Liz Best
BOCA RATON — Joseph G. Spangenberger will be remembered for all the right reasons: kindness, intelligence and his good-natured, fun-loving personality. Mr. Spangenberger, 77, of Boca Raton, died Feb. 22.
Born in Newark, N.J., Mr. Spangenberger served in the Army, and then earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and an MBA from New York University. He went on to work for Shell Oil Co. In 1968, he started his own real estate brokerage business in Creskill, N.J.
He was married to his college sweetheart, Mary, for 50 years, and the couple had four children. When they retired to Boca Raton, Mr. Spangenberger continued his work in real estate and served on the Boca Raton Community Relations Board.
His daughter, Kathryn Spangenberger-Bleckman of Allendale, N.J., remembers her dad’s love of family, church and community, and for the courage he showed when he started his real estate business.
“He was a very thoughtful and loving man, full of humor, warmth and intelligence. My father had a wonderful personality,” she said. “I think that he would say that his family and his business brought him the greatest joy in his life. We miss him dearly.”
Mr. Spangenberger also got a kick out of going to the local movie theater.
“His favorite film was Gone With The Wind,” she said.
Bleckman said that her parents were best friends from the time they met at Rutgers, until her mother died in 2007. Another daughter, Elizabeth, also died the same year.
In addition to his daughter Kathryn, Mr. Spangenberger’s survivors include a daughter Susan Spangenberger of Hobe Sound; son Joseph Spangenberger of Florida; a son-in-law, David Bleckman, and a grandson, Joseph Bleck-man, both of Allendale, N.J.
A funeral Mass was held on Feb. 26 at St. Lucy’s Catholic Church in Highland Beach. The family asks that donations be made in his memory to St. Lucy’s Catholic Church, 3510 South Ocean Blvd., Highland Beach, FL 33487.
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