John Giorno (1929-2017)

John Giorno, age 87, a resident of Whitewater WI, formerly of Kenosha, died Tuesday August 15, 2017 at the Fort Atkinson Memorial Hospital.

John was born on September 26, 1929 in Kenosha to Joseph and Margaret (Kramer) Giorno. He attended St. George School and was later united in marriage with the former Phyllis Richter.

John was a unique person. He was one of the first Honda Motorcycle dealers in the country when he opened Ace Cycle Shop/Ace Honda in 1951. During a trip to Japan in 1963, he met Mr. Soichiro Honda. At one time, he owned the largest privately owned antique motorcycle collection in the world. John was one of the original members of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America and attended many motorcycle races. He also attended the Daytona 200 races every year for over 30 years.

He was an outdoors enthusiast, hunting and trapping in his younger years. He also enjoyed fishing and bird watching. He was especially delighted with hummingbirds. In 1993, John climbed Gray’s Peak, one of Colorado’s famous “14-ers”. He was a member of the NRA who served proudly in the National Guard for eight years. John loved to read and listen to classic country and western music.

John is survived by his wife of 56 years Phyllis, and by their children Lori (Bob) Underhill, Rocco (Sarah) Giorno, Christine (Leo) Wurzer, Roxanne (Steve) Schroeder, and Tony (Jill) Giorno, 13 grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. He is further survived by his siblings, Mary Jorgenson, Virginia Kreuscher, Charlie Giorno and Rosemary Brunner.

He was preceded in death by his parents and by his brother Joe Giorno.

A mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday August 21, 2017 at 3:00PM at St. Mark Catholic Church. Visitation with the family will be on Monday at the church from 1:30PM until the time of mass.

In lieu of flowers memorials to the church would be appreciated.