Richard Angelo DeFrancisci
August 1, 1923 - June 8, 2018 San Jose
Richard Angelo DeFrancisci was born in Bronx, NY on August 1, 1923, the third child of Eugene and Josephine DeFrancisci. Tragedy struck early in his life as his father died of mental illness while Richard was still a very young child. When his mother traveled seeking work, Richard accompanied her while his siblings remained behind and attended a church school.
At the age of 6, he was struck by a car and although he was able to get up and walk away, he went on to develop sepsis which was very nearly fatal. After extensive surgery and hospitalization, he was left with severe physical deformity and disability. It did not deter him from living a productive life but rather seemed to drive him to succeed. By the age of 15, he had remodeled his mother’s home and worked for a painter painting rooms for 3 dollars per room. At times he had earned up to 15 dollars a week.
After graduating high school at 19, he travelled to Maine for a 6 month course in machining where he specialized in operating shapers and surface grinders. He stayed on for an additional three months as instructor and then returned to New York, where he worked for Ippolito’s, a local machine shop.
He met Olive Rainone on the New York subway in 1949 and the two were married on June 30, 1951. The couple resided in Yonkers, NY. Over the next four years they had 3 children, Donna, Richard and Susan. The family then moved to Tucson, Arizona where a second son, Robert was born.
In 1960, the family moved again, to Cupertino and then to Sunnyvale, CA. Their third son Thomas was born.
When he first arrived in California, Richard worked for Varian Associates in Redwood City, a manufacturer of vacuum tubes. In 1964, he was hired by Dr. Elliot Levinthal to establish the instrumentation research lab in the Genetics department at Stanford University. Dr. Levinthal, a part owner of Varian, had already been aware of Richard’s abilities.
While at Stanford, Richard was surrounded by some of the brightest and engineering and scientific minds in the country. His role was to take their ideas and concepts and convert them into functioning instrumentation.
In 1968, he founded Oliver Instruments, a manufacturer of medical and research instrumentation in the garage of the family home. Despite a relatively slow start, the company began to grow and by 1974, the business relocated to a shop in a commercial area of Sunnyvale and rapidly outgrew that facility. He and Olive then built a 16000 square foot industrial building in Sunnyvale and used 3300 square feet of that building for Oliver Instruments. The company moved a final time to its present site on Commercial Street and remained there until its closure in 2017. His youngest son Tom was instrumental in keeping the business open during the latter years and continues the manufacturing tradition to this day.
Richard’s passions were his faith and especially singing in the choir, his family and his work.
He also sang in the San Jose Municipal Chorus.
He passed away peacefully in his home in San Jose on June 8, 2018.
He is survived by his wife Olive, of nearly 67 years marriage, and his five children, Donna DeFrancisci (husband Steve), Dr. Richard DeFrancisci (wife Susan), Susan Colon, Robert DeFrancisci, and Thomas DeFrancisci (wife Sheri).
9 grandchildren,
Jason and James DeFrancisci, Dominick (wife Sharon) and Alexandra Colon, Dr. Gabriela DeFrancisci, Dr. Christina DeFrancisci (husband Charles), Steven DeFrancisci, Charles Cossette and Terra Seifert,
and 6 great grandchildren, Devereaux and Vinovia DeFrancisci, Quinn and Fletcher Seifert, and Preston and Olivia Cossette.
Mass services for Richard will be held at Church of the Resurrection on Saturday June 16, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. followed by a reception next door at the Farana Center.
For any contributions, please send donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital www.stjude.org