Samuel H. Pacifico, a retired educator, has passed away at Hospice House, Pleasant Prairie, WI on September 11, 2017 after a three-week illness.<\/p>\n
Born in Reading, PA, on July 19, 1934, Sam attended schools in the Reading area, graduating from Reading High School Class of 1952.<\/p>\n
While selling shoes in a department store to work his way through college, Sam met his wife Pat.\u00a0 After two weeks of dating, Sam proposed with a plastic Buster Brown Shoe ring.\u00a0 They married six months later on May 27, 1960, in Reading, PA.\u00a0 They have two children, Patrick, of Kenosha, and Samantha, of Mesa, AZ, and three grandchildren \u2013 Sebastian, of Milwaukee, and Simon and Gisela, of Mesa.<\/p>\n
Sam\u2019s desire to attain a college degree led him to join the Army and avail himself of the GI Bill.\u00a0 During his time in the Army, he became one of the first member\u2019s of the Army\u2019s elite Green Beret. After two years in the service, Sam began his educational journey, obtaining his B.S. from Kutztown College, M.S. from Colgate University, Principal\u2019s Certificate from Lehigh University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.\u00a0 In between degrees, he took classes at Penn State, University of Pennsylvania and a summer science grant at Iowa State University in Ames.\u00a0 In 1966 he became a Fulbright Exchange Teacher to England.\u00a0 He and Pat lived in Manchester and traveled extensively during their year there.\u00a0 They were also blessed with their first child, Patrick, three weeks before their return to the U.S.!\u00a0 One of Sam\u2019s proudest achievements was obtaining all of his education through awards and grants.<\/p>\n
After receiving his Ph.D., Sam served as principal in Pewaukee, WI, then came to Kenosha, where he worked at Lincoln J.H.S. before becoming principal at Reuther High School, a position he greatly enjoyed.\u00a0 Sam respected the students, and they respected him.<\/p>\n
Upon retiring while Pat still worked, Sam took a \u201ctemporary\u201d job at St. Joe\u2019s High School teaching physics and science \u2013 a position he held for seven years until his real retirement!\u00a0 He always loved teaching, which was his true calling, and enjoyed his years at St. Joe\u2019s.<\/p>\n
When Sam finally retired, he and Pat enjoyed traveling the world, sometimes with their great friends, Reg and Christy Barden.\u00a0 One highlight was a first-class trip to Australia, a gift from their son, Patrick, where they visited both coasts and longtime friends in Perth.\u00a0\u00a0 Amazingly, on their last trip to Italy, Sam discovered direct relatives of his grandfather in Casalbore, where he, Pat and their friends were treated as family!\u00a0 They enjoyed further travel to Canada, England, Italy, France, Scotland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Portugal, the Azores, and Spain.\u00a0 Memorable for Sam was going hand-gliding off a 2,000 ft cliff in Rio, and taking his grandson Sebastian to Chile for his 15th<\/sup> birthday.\u00a0 He and Pat also enjoyed transatlantic cruising with their friends and have many happy memories of their travels.\u00a0 He also spent his 80th<\/sup> birthday sky-diving!<\/p>\n In his free time Sam was an avid reader of non-fiction, up to 2-3 books each week.\u00a0 He enjoyed\u00a0\u00a0 visiting family in Reading, working on his VW\u2019s and vintage Triumph sports cars, dogs, and air and car shows in general.\u00a0 In recent years, the view of Superstition Mountain just outside his patio door in Gold Canyon, AZ, gave him great enjoyment.\u00a0 He loved passing on the Mountain\u2019s \u201clegend\u201d to all.\u00a0 But by far Sam\u2019s greatest pleasure in life was spending time with his grandchildren.<\/p>\n Sam was predeceased by his parents and brother, James Pacific.\u00a0 Surviving, besides immediate family, are two sisters, Lillian (Frank) McTamney and Dolores Lavigna, both of Reading, sister-in-law Elvina Pacific of Wyomissing, his nephews, Joe Albright of Fleetwood, Bradley Albright of Philadelphia,\u00a0 neice Michele (Michael) Fischetti and Jon (Madeline) Pacific of Jersey City, cousins Patricia Pacifico and Judith (Kerry) Klinger, both of Wyomissing and other nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n Funeral Services honoring Samuel\u2019s life will be held Wednesday, September 13th at the funeral home at 6:45 p.m. Interment will take place on Thursday, September 14th at 12:00 noon at Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Union Grove, WI.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Samuel H. Pacifico, a retired educator, has passed away at Hospice House, Pleasant Prairie, WI on September 11, 2017 after a three-week illness. Born in Reading, PA, on July 19, 1934, Sam attended schools in the Reading area, graduating from Reading High School Class of<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":14233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"service-location":[],"class_list":["post-14232","obituary","type-obituary","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/obituary\/14232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/obituary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/obituary"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"service-location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service-location?post=14232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Informaci\u00f3n del servicio<\/h3>\n