After retiring from the New York City Department of Sanitation and the trucking company he owned in the Bronx, John R. DiPace graduated from the Swedish Institute of Massage in New York and began a new career as a masseur, first at Gurney’s Inn in Montauk and then for private clients for over 40 years.
A sought-after practitioner, “he was known as ‘Masseur of the Stars,’ and you were lucky if you got on his table,” his family wrote. Mr. DiPace was “strong and talented,” they said, and he worked well into his 80s.
He died at home in East Hampton last Thursday. The cause was metastasized bone cancer.
Affectionately known as Johnny D, Mr. DiPace was born in the Bronx on March 12, 1933, to John DiPace and the former Amelia Padula. He grew up there and attended a public school, going on to serve with the military police in Germany during the Korean War, from 1953 to 1955.
He began his 20-year career with the Department of Sanitation a few years later, and ran the DiPace Trucking Company from 1970 to 1975. In the 1970s, he lived in Rockland County and summered in Montauk, where he worked at Gurney’s for two years before striking out on his own. He moved to East Hampton full time in the 1980s.
Mr. DiPace “was the epitome of healthy living and was an exceptional athlete his whole life,” his family said. He kept a disciplined 5 a.m. workout schedule. He had been a boxer as a young man, but ultimately tennis was his sport, “and he was highly competitive on the court.” He played at Green Hollow and East Hampton Indoor Tennis.
He enjoyed the beach and daily swims at Devon in Amagansett, especially with his family. He was also “graceful and talented on the dance floor,” and “knew his way around the kitchen, hosting delicious and hilarious dinner parties.”
“His humorous storytelling will be terribly missed,” his family said. He was a fan of old movies, especially westerns.
Mr. DiPace was a “father extraordinaire” who doted on his children and later his grandchildren, and was “a loyal friend.”
He is survived by three daughters, Laurie Reed of Virginia Beach, Amy Malave of Laurel, and Ann DiPace-Zullo of Pound Ridge, N.Y., and by his grandchildren Jett, Summer, and Jacqueline Reed, Garret and Wyatt Malave, and Emily Zullo. A daughter, Jackie Lynn DiPace, died before him, as did two brothers, Romolo and Francis DiPace, and his twin sister, Loretta Cozzetti.
A service will be held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m.
His family has suggested donations to the C.J. Foundation for SIDS, 30 Prospect Avenue, #3, Hackensack, N.J. 07601.
