Joseph P. Tavalaro, 86

Inwood auto body shop owner was avid golfer

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Joseph P. Tavalaro, the last of 11 siblings and a lifelong Inwood resident, died on March 30. He was 86.
One of Tavalaro’s sons, also named Joseph, said that his father was well known and greatly appreciated by past customers. “Everyone in town knew him. He’d take care of anyone’s car problems, and loved helping them,” Joseph said. “Every time I come out to the shop, people stop by to say hello and tell me how much they miss him.”
The Tavalaro owned and operated Ideal Auto Body, a repair shop on Doughty Boulevard in Inwood he opened in 1955, and spent a lot of time there, Joseph said. “He was a workaholic,” he said. “He got up and was out the door by 6:30 in the morning and home by 5 in the evening. He was a six-day-a-week working man. He worked right up to a month before he died.”
Cars had been a part of Tavalaro’s life since childhood, Joseph said. “He graduated from Lawrence High School a year early,” he said. “He was enrolled in an auto mechanic study program, doing really well, when the instructors told him, ‘Don’t come back next year. He knew more than the instructors. He’d been working on cars since he was eight years old.”
Tavalaro’s granddaughter Marissa remembers how much her grandfather loved being in his shop, and his passion for fixing cars. “At all hours of the day you could find him in his shop covered in grease,” she said. “His doors were always open, whether you needed a repair or a hot cup of coffee, a Danish, or just wanted to watch a sports game. He was a perfectionist and always put pride his work. No job was too big.  He could saw a car in half and weld it back together, just like new. He had a soft heart and always helped people out financially if they couldn’t afford the car repair, cutting the bill in half or sometimes even not charging anything. He still opened the shop six days a week until he was 85. All his life he continued to be a source of help and the hub of the Inwood community.”

In his father’s time away from the shop, Joseph said that his father loved playing golf. “He was a member of Peninsula Golf Club in Massapequa and played semi-pro,” he said. “He was even invited to Vegas to play.”
According to Marissa, he played with some of the best golfers and sports players, including Tommy Lasorda, the former Dodgers manager. He played in California and for the Dunces Casino (now defunct) in Las Vegas.  “He and his older brother Carmine were members of the Peninsula Golf Course and in 2012, a road on the course was named ‘Tavalaro’ in his honor,” Marissa said. “My grandfather attended the dedication five months after open heart surgery and even played five holes before tiring.”  
Tavalaro is survived by his sons: Joseph (Nancy) of Woodmere and Ronald of Saugus, Calif.; and three grandchildren: Vincent, Ronald Jr., and Marissa.
A mass of Christian burial was held at Our Lady of Good Counsel R.C. Church in Inwood on April 4. Interment was in the family plot at Greenfield Cemetery in Hempstead.
“I think he thought he was going to work forever,” Joseph said. “I think he lasted the longest of all his siblings because he never retired. He always kept busy.”