Dr. Joseph Francis “Doc” Baldacchino, longtime resident of Emmitsburg, MD, died on Friday, June 17, 2016, at the Gettysburg Hospital. He died exactly one month before his 93rd birthday. Born July 17, 1923, in Revloc, PA, he was the son of the late Joseph Edward and Dina Guarneri Baldacchino.
Doc was a student at St. Francis College, Loretto, PA, in 1942 when his education was interrupted by his enlistment in the U.S. Army. In 1947 he was graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, after which he served stints in the U.S. Public Health Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Together with his wife, Sarah McIntyre Baldacchino, who is a registered nurse, Doc opened a dental practice in Emmitsburg in 1952 that would continue until his retirement in 1985. For several years in the 1970s and 1980s Doc also performed dentistry for the Daughters of Charity at St. Joseph’s Provincial House.
Soon after his retirement, Doc underwent quintuple heart by-pass surgery at the Washington Hospital Center. His cardiologists at the time urged him to take up walking as part of a regular exercise regimen, and little did they know what they had started. From that time forth until the very week of his death, Doc became a familiar face on the streets of Emmitsburg, where his biggest source of enjoyment was exchanging greetings with the legions of kindly townspeople he encountered on his daily rounds.
In addition to his wife of 69 years, Sarah, Doc is survived by a brother, Anthony Baldacchino of Carrolltown, PA; three sons, Joseph and wife, Nell, of Bowie, MD; Philip and wife, Carol, of Tampa, FL; and Vincent and wife, Pam, of Great Mills, MD; nine grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by brothers James Baldacchino and Philip Baldacchino and sister Josephine Baldacchino Mezzelo, all of Carrolltown, PA.
The family will receive friends on Friday, June 24, 2016, from 10:00 a.m. until the time of a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 47 DePaul St., Emmitsburg, with the Rev. Charles F. Krieg, C.M., as celebrant. Burial will follow in New St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery.
Memorials, in lieu of flowers, may be made to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, P.O. Box 376, Emmitsburg, MD 21727. Arrangements have been entrusted to Myers-Durboraw Funeral Home in Emmitsburg.