Joseph Paul Sanguinetti

Joseph Paul Sanguinetti, 35, of Pearl River, New York passed away surrounded by his family and friends on December 21, 2025, after a short, but fierce, battle with cancer. An only child, he was beloved by his parents, family, and friends.

Joseph Sanguinetti was born on February 6, 1990 to Antonia Dykstra and Paul Sanguinetti in Pearl River, New York. Joe graduated from Pearl River High School and BOCES Technical School where he had received several regional awards. After high school, he earned a scholarship to Ohio Technical College, where he studied automotive high performance and racing which propelled him into the world of tuners. He was a master technician, and this was the passion and focus of his professional and personal endeavors for the remainder of his life as he built multiple performance cars, raced competitively, and traveled the country crewing for rally teams.

He was affectionately known by his friends as “Joe Spaghetti” and was described as the “meanest, friendliest person you'd ever met”, the “Subaru guru”, and “selfless to his core”; a true “gearhead”. He raced autocross and drove all over to attend track days, and often repaired his car in the process, or on the drives home. The stories that stemmed from those events were things of car legend, like “who knew an N/A Forester could go that fast”. Joe attended car meets all over the country, raced snowmobiles with his dad, and was arguably one of the best amateur drivers in his friend group. As a hobby, Joe built race cars for himself and others, and it was his aspiration to build a “frankenstein” swapped RS out of his 1999 Impreza RS coupe. He even had his own website, the project car, where he documented his builds and organized his knowledge of swaps for others to use as they built their own Subarus.

In addition to being a skilled mechanic and driver, Joe was a talented artist with an eye for detail, who loved sketching, music, and photography. He was often seen taking candid photos of his friends, and enjoyed night-time drives where he listened to his favorite house and techno songs. He was an avid traveler and founding member of the car club “Winding Spirit”, and fell in love with the Tail of the Dragon, an 11-mile winding road that crosses from North Carolina into Tennessee. Over the past decade, he took nearly 20 trips to the Dragon with many of his friends and family. In 2020, as the world was shutting down, Joe and his mom, Toni, took a two-week road trip west driving nearly 6,700 miles across 21 states in 11 days. He was always ready for an adventure, and happy to bring along the people he loved.

Joe was also the type of person to do you a favor and expect nothing in return, often saying “don’t worry about me”. If you called him in the middle of the night, broken down on the side of the road 200 miles away, he would load up his tools and text you an ETA. Selfless to his core, he loved his family dearly and treated his friends as if they were his family. Generous to the very end, one of Joe's last acts on earth was to donate his corneas to Sloan Kettering. His friends and family will tell you that Joe was, and still is, one of the best people we've had the privilege of knowing. His decision to give sight to someone else, while a surprise to us, did not come as a shock. We are warmed by the idea that someone else will experience the world through his eyes.

Joe is survived by his mother, Toni, his father, Paul (Gina), and his cousins; Steven and Lisa Sanguinetti, Michael Simeone, and Lilly and Rocko Mattos. Joe is preceded in death by his maternal grandparents, Sylvia and Roger Zeimer, and paternal grandparents, Josephine and Leighton Sanguinetti.

A memorial to honor Joe's life will be held on January 17, 2026. Family and friends are invited to a service at St. Aedan’s Church (23 Reld Drive, Pearl River, NY) beginning at 10:00 a.m., followed by a repass. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a local autocross chapter, car club, or rally team in Joe’s name, or Subaru’s “Drive for Charity” event. In addition, donations to support Joe’s estate, and family, can be made here