Pharmacist promoted healthy lifestyle
Six days a week, for more than 20 years, Joe DiMatteo sat down before a microphone, offering medical advice to callers on his popular SiriusXM radio show “Ask Joe DiMatteo.”
Drawing on his work as a pharmacist and his commitment to natural medicine, Mr. DiMatteo would offer advice about health problems with his prognosis couched in traditional medicine, alternative medicine and the Scripture.
In both of the pharmacies Mr. DiMatteo founded and operated, he would consult one-on-one with patients. When he closed up shop in the afternoons, he often would call other patients to check in and check up on their lives.
His son, Joseph DiMatteo Jr., has worked with his father in the pharmacies for several years.
“He had a tremendous ability to stop whatever he was doing and go talk to people, show people he cared and give people his time,” he said of his father. “In the middle of a busy day, he would give people 100 percent of himself to a client. It wasn’t just about their health, it was about getting their life together. He had an amazing ability for empathy.”
Joe DiMatteo Sr., of Oakmont, died Thursday from complications from surgery. He was 61.
Born and raised in Wall to two Italian immigrants, Mr. DiMatteo was the youngest of three brothers. The three boys shared a bed growing up in their two-bedroom home while their parents worked in a nearby mill. As a young boy, Mr. DiMatteo worked tenaciously. He shined shoes to earn pocket change and later painted houses to put himself through Duquesne University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in pharmacy.
With his tenacity, Mr. DiMatteomonths Hills after openedinPenn his 1979, collegea pharmacyjust a graduation.few By 1985, he opened a second storefront in Oakmont. Both pharmacies are called The Medicine Shoppe Compounding Pharmacy and Integrative Wellness Centers. His shops are different from others in the Medicine Shoppe chain, and different from most modern pharmacies in that some medicines are mortar-and-pestle-made in house rather than manufactured by a pharmacological
Both stores have customers who have come for decades for advice — medical or otherwise. Many of Mr. DiMatteo’s customers remember that he cried with them on the phone when they went through a difficult time, or his commitment to calling after hours to check in on them.
“He belonged to a lot of people,” his wife, Renee, said. “Wherever we went, honestly, we knew someone that had a rash, a possible tumor or who couldn’t breathe right. You name it, they talked to him about it.” The couple met at church in 1980. Only three months after they started dating, Mrs. DiMatteo became ill with stayed together, beat cancer together and were married a year after her diagnosis. They were married for more than 35years. Their commitment to religion brought the couple together and did not waver. Atc ompany. the time of his death, the DiMatteos belonged to Grace Life Church in Monroeville. Schafer Grace rememberedLife pastor BruceMr. DiMatteo as “full of integrity. He had this godly ability to find answers to situations that no one else could find. When it comes to his time and his talent and his treasure, he was one of the most generous people you’ll ever meet.” Mr. DiMatteo’s daughter, Mary, recalls how her father made sure that faith was a part of his relationship with her 2-year-old son, Marco.
In addition to his wife and two children, Mr. DiMatteo is survived by his another son, Dante; and two grandsons.
Friends will be received from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Monday at the Burket-Truby Funeral Home Cremation & Alternative Services, Inc. 421 Allegheny Ave., Oakmont.
The funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Grace Life Church.
The family suggests donations to Grace Life Church, 4761 William Penn Highway, Monroeville, PA 15146.