Joe Mirabella, the long-time director of transportation for Cherry Creek Schools near Denver, a trailblazing thought leader in the industry and a veteran of the Vietnam War, has died after suffering a massive heart attack on Feb. 26. He was 67.
The announcement was made by David Anderson, a personal friend Mirabella’s and former co-worker at Cherry Creek as well as the current director of transportation and fleet for nearby Adams 12 Five Star Schools and the Region 5 director for NAPT. Mirabella, a resident of Littleton, Colo., led Cherry Creek Schools for more than 20 years before retiring in June 2000. Mirabella was on the NAPT board from 1995 through 2001.
About a decade earlier, he co-founded the Metropolitan Area Transportation Efficiency Study (MATES) with Augie Campbell, then director of transportation at Aurora Public Schools. The focus group of assistant superintendents met regularly to review and evaluate local operations in an effort to create cooperative transportation services. It has evolved into a statewide key performance indicators (KPI) organization.
In the 1980s, Mirabella converted 54 school buses to CNG from diesel. He also championed exterior school bus advertising as a way to create revenue for transportation budgets. At the 2000 National Congress on School Transportation in Warrensburg, Mo., he unsuccessfully attempted to bring to the floor information on how Colorado was using bus ads as well as a discussion on including it in the National Specifications and Procedures manual.
“He certainly was somebody who was cutting edge. He was a great man. He taught me a lot,” Anderson told School Transportation News.
“In Colorado we’re mourning a great loss,” added Kanoe Cockett, a former chair of the MATES organization and the retired director of transportation for Littleton Public Schools.
Cockett, the second recipient of the STN Leadership Award in 2008, added that Mirabella was her mentor when she worked at Cherry Creek.
NAPT Executive Director Mike Martin said Mirabella was a “critical member” of a team that developed the association’s first strategic growth plan. Martin also recalled Mirabella being a “larger than life character,” a man who wore sandals with a three-piece suit when they first met.
“He had the audacity to think he looked good doing it,” Martin recalled. “Nonetheless, he became a mentor to me and many others new to the industry who appreciated his pragmatic advice.”
Anderson said funeral services will be held on March 2 at the Horan & McConaty in Lakewood, Colo. Mirabella is survived by wife Sharon; daughters Emily Johnson and Anne Mirabella; granddaughters Hannah, Madison and Chloe; stepdaughters Susana Donato and Melissa Kulesa; granddaughters Lydia, Ava and Zoe, twin sister Dolores Mirabella, and ex-wife Jennifer.
Mirabella was born in New York City on Sept. 23, 1944. He graduated from the University of Dayton in 1966 and was a lifelong member of the Chi Sigma Alpha fraternity. He earned a master’s degree from Ohio University before serving in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps, when he supervised the loading and unloading of ships during the Vietnam War.
Memorial donations in Mirabella’s name are being received by the Long Beach (N.Y.) Catholic Regional School.
