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Dec. 25—By Dillon Mullan — dmullan@baltsun.com
PUBLISHED:December 25, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.| UPDATED:December 25, 2023 at 10:57 a.m.
Wayne Richard Gioioso Sr., a real estate investor and minority owner of the Orioles, died of a heart attack Dec. 7 at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 83.
"He was big. He was larger than life. He was just a big presence in so many ways," his son, Wayne R. Gioioso Jr., said.
Mr. Gioioso was born in Baltimore to Nicholas Gioioso, owner of the Joicy Hat Manufacturing Co., which was an Anglicized version of the family's Italian last name, and Rintha Kellum, a homemaker. His father arrived in Baltimore along with his four brothers around the turn of the century from Ruoti, a town in southern Italy.
Mr. Gioioso, who was 6 feet 4, grew up in Mount Washington and graduated from Calvert Hall College High School in 1960, the University of Baltimore in 1963 and the University of Baltimore Law School in 1966.
In high school, he met his wife, Judy Gioioso, a student at Western High School, at the Splendid Diner before school. Per family legend, he was characteristically frugal on the first date.
"On his first date with my mother, he took her to a drive-in movie. She said she wanted popcorn, but he said, 'No it's expensive,'" daughter Pam VillaSanta said. "So she just went and got her own and wouldn't let him have any."
Maurice Wyatt, a friend since high school, said the La Sallian brother who oversaw detention at Calvert Hall, and therefore knew Mr. Gioioso quite well, lent him the money to buy her a ring. The two were married in 1960 as teenagers and raised five children. They lived in Mount Washington before moving to Lutherville and Glen Arm.
"She was the calm to his storm," Pam said. "They were married for almost 64 years."
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As a father, Mr. Gioioso made his five children order individually at McDonald's to avoid the 4 cent sales tax that kicked in for purchases of a dollar or more.
He hated ice machines and curse words.
"He never let us get ice. If you get ice, you got less Coke," Wayne Gioioso Jr. said. "Over his life, he probably saved $250 that way, but that was him. He saved every penny."
"I never heard him curse," Pam said. "I don't think anybody ever did."
In law school, Mr. Gioioso bought his first house in the Hampden neighborhood at auction and was hooked, opting for a career flipping houses instead of taking the bar. He bought houses in Hampden for a few thousand dollars to repair and rent before selling them for a few hundred thousand dollars 50 years later.
Around Baltimore, he was a member of the Sons of Italy and Associated Italian American Charities, and he organized weekly Monday night dinners with friends in Little Italy. Mr. Gioioso was with longtime friend Peter Angelos in bankruptcy court in New York City in 1993 when Mr. Angelos bought the Orioles for $173 million. As a minority owner, Mr. Gioioso brought his son along in 1999 when the Orioles played an exhibition game in Cuba and introduced him to President Fidel Castro.
Mr. Gioioso's friends called him "Big Wayne" and his grandchildren called him "Bubba." Mr. Wyatt, an attorney and lobbyist, said Mr. Gioioso would call his office and tell his secretary it was the mayor or pope calling. Once when former Gov. Parris Glendening actually did call his office, Mr. Wyatt assumed it was Mr. Gioioso and answered the phone with an expletive.
"The governor never called, so I knew it was Wayne. I answered the phone and said, 'OK [expletive], what do you want?" The governor said, "Maurice, is that you?'" Mr. Wyatt said. "We were good friends for 70 years."
A funeral service was held Dec. 14 at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium.
Mr. Gioioso is survived by his wife, Judy Gioioso, of Glen Arm; his son, Wayne R. Gioioso Jr., of Ruxton; four daughters, Pam VillaSanta, of Lutherville, Michelle Love, of Lutherville, Tina Gioioso, of Glen Arm, and Nicole Freeland, of Edgewood; 17 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren, with two more on the way; and two Shih Tzus, Jilly and Gabby.
On his last day, Mr. Gioioso drove to Lowe's to pick up supplies to fix a broken boiler and called his accountant. That night he went to a Christmas party with his son, insisting on walking a few extra blocks instead of paying for parking close by.
At his 83rd birthday party in November, he asked Father Bill Waters about heaven.
"He asked, 'When you go to heaven, do you see people?' Father Waters said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, do you think I'll see the nuns from when I was younger? Because I was a lot to handle back then. I'm just hoping they can see that I made something of myself,'" his son recounted. "Father Waters told him, 'Yeah, they're going to know.'"
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