Joseph DeLuca
Born to Florindo and Rosalinda Deluca, Joe was raised on a market farm, tilling the land, sowing and reaping produce to sell at the Hamilton Market. In 1952, the family farm was sold to J. Cooke Concrete Blocks Ltd. for its valuable gravel and a new career was born for Joe. He nurtured his admiration for the land into one of the largest landscaping contractors in North America. And along the way, he changed the landscape of landscaping, winning awards and accolades for his innovate designs and attention to detail.
No effort at ensuring complete customer satisfaction was too much for Joe. Even as he was chairman of the company, at what for most is retirement age, Joe could be seen traveling to project sites and completing his own ‘deficiency list’, well before the consultants would do so. If the job was not up to standard, it could not be described as an Aldershot Landscaping job until each imperfection was corrected. Although landscaping of the mid 1950’s was predominantly sod and a walkway, with a patio for good measure, Joe captured the beauty of the north country, where he loved to fish and hunt and brought these back to southern Ontario. A trademark feature of his early designs included clump birch designs was the clump birch. He would use moss covered rocks and the best materials in his early work on some of Burlington’s finest homes.
He began as a lawn cutter, naturally doing more landscape work in connection with the maintenance of properties, and would soon have enough work to employ two or three others. His early customers, home builders such as Dave McKee, Gerry Stark, and John Gregory recognized the quality of his craft. They appreciated the value of his workmanship in the quality of their homebuilding; as did equally the quality of his work on commercial projects invoke the same loyalty and admiration.
Aldershot Landscaping was a pioneer with engaging landscape architects and designers for its projects. Renowned architects Tony Butler, John Harkness, Stan Roscoe and Trevor Garwood-Jones, among others, would insist on the use of Aldershot Landscaping to perform work on their projects. Indeed, Aldershot Landscaping provided the work for Construction House of Hamilton.
Under Joe’s leadership, Aldershot Landscaping innovative approach was a basis for the firm growing from a maintenance company to large scale work, design build work, and overall construction management throughout Ontario and Quebec.
A strong client list is evidence of the respect for the firm’s work which Joe engendered. Royal Bank, RIM, City of Toronto, City of Burlington, Queens University, York University, Royal Botanical Gardens, Bell Mobility, Zennon, Jackson Triggs, Brantford and Niagara Casino’s, Town of Oakville { insert some more of the names from the list on the page in the scrap book that lists clients } and the prolific developer Rudy Reimer. Indeed, Rudy Reimer wrote into his contracts that Aldershot was the required landscape contractor.
Joe Deluca was also well known for his generosity, hosting an annual fishing derby in support of Help-A-Child Smile Foundation. And as a testament to his love of Burlington, Aldershot landscaping donated the work associated with the Brant Street city Hall plaza to the City of Burlington.
Joe and his wife Audrey, raised four children – Bill, Linda, Sandra and Cathy, with son Bill joining the company in 1967. After the death of Audrey, Joe married Jean and enjoyed the love of his step children and many grandchildren throughout his years.
For 55 years he operated a company whose success is built on quality and performance. From hard working parents he learned the value of effort, he learned the benefit of a kind word, and he came to love the land and echo that love in his work. We welcome Joseph DeLuca into the Construction Hall of Fame as an example of the spirit of our construction industry.