Fine-arts photographer Joseph DiGregorio dies at 71

Joseph Stephen DiGregorio, a chemical engineer who later turned academic and then had a third act as a fine-arts photographer whose works were exhibited in North Coast galleries, died on April 30. He was 71.

DiGregorio, a Santa Rosa resident and the husband of Carolyn Stark, executive director of the Sonoma County Vintners, died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after an eight-year battle with the disease.

Born in 1943 in Philadelphia, DiGregorio was the first in his family to graduate from college, earning an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Notre Dame University and a Ph.D. from Penn State University.

He worked as a chemical engineer at Shell Oil specializing in corrosion protection and later on solar energy projects. After Shell, he then turned to academia by joining the faculty at Rice University, and later back to Penn State as an associate dean in the engineering department. He finished up as vice provost at Georgia Tech, where he was instrumental in the development of its Global Learning Center that helped to revitalize the city’s downtown economic development.

Locally, DiGregorio was known for his photography where he used software to make his photos resemble Impressionist paintings, a process which he dubbed “modern Impressionism photographs.” It focused primarily on landscape and architecture.

“He always thought of himself as a pioneer whatever the field he was in,” said his son, Joe, of Fort Worth, Texas.

DiGregorio was “highly competitive on everything he did,” including baseball, where he played for a semi-pro team as a first baseman, Joe DiGregorio said.

Stark noted that DiGregorio brought the same analytical outlook from his education to his cancer treatment, working with his doctors at Memorial Hospital and Redwood Regional Medical Oncology Group, from understanding different treatment approaches to attending conferences on the disease to undergoing going new drug trials.

DiGregorio developed a special relationship with his doctor, L. Wayne Keiser, during the course of his treatment. “The conversations he and Joe had were peer to peer,” she noted, as he did not want to be passive in his treatment.

In addition to Stark and his son, DiGregorio is survived by two sisters, Rose Marie Goodrich and Anne Miele, a daughter, Jennifer, of Oxnard, and nine grandchildren.

The family welcomes donations in his name to the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Greater Bay Area Chapter at www.lls.org/gba.