Army veteran and Santa Rosa attorney Joe Piasta remembered as man of deep faith

Joe Piasta, a noted Santa Rosa attorney, decorated Army veteran and pillar of the local Catholic community, died at his home on July 19, three years after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

He was 73.

Piasta spent decades practicing law in Sonoma County, become a partner at Shapiro, Galvin, Shapiro, Piasta & Moran and litigation partner at O’Brien, Watters, Davis & Piasta. He opened Law Offices of Joseph A. Piasta in 2014.

Concurrently, he spent a quarter-century as an adjunct professor at USF Law School.

“He was such a proud Don,” said Piasta’s daughter, Joan Piasta Omreng of Oslo, Norway.

Piasta was deeply devoted to the Catholic faith, sending all seven of his children to parochial school.

“My dad, being the breadwinner, worked so tremendously hard at his own expense to give his kids the gift of a Catholic education,” Piasta Omreng said. “On top of seven kids, he was finding time to be an active member in the church and community. My jaw is on the floor. He worked in some hallmark trials and he still always made time to get home for family dinner.”

Piasta was born July 11, 1951, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the oldest of Bette and Edward Piasta’s six children.

He graduated from Servite High School in Orange, California, and became the first in his family to attend college when he enrolled at the University of San Francisco. It was there, as a senior and student body president, he met fellow student Kathy Portman.

Piasta earned his law degree from George Washington University and he and Kathy married in 1976. The pair moved to Virginia for Piasta’s active duty service in the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps.

In 1981, Piasta left active duty and he and Kathy moved their young family to Sonoma County.

Piasta would spend 33 years in the service, retiring in 2007 as a colonel. He returned to active duty for nine months in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving as Staff Judge Advocate based in California.

For his work, Piasta earned the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.

In 2008, Piasta told The Press Democrat he looked to his own father who served in World War II as a guide.

“My father set the standard,” he said then. “Freedom isn’t free.”

Church and family were bedrocks of his life, his children said.

And in some cases, Piasta married his love of the law and his devotion to the church, son Frank Piasta of Dallas said.

“He worked with the church for years,” he said. “He was on the finance council at St. Eugene’s. … There were a couple of high profile cases where he represented the church, was their attorney. That wasn’t just pride, it was devotion to his faith, to use his profession and his skill set and support the church in the way that he could.”

Even when the family would travel out of town, for soccer tournaments or other youth sporting events, they made time to attend church service.

“We had a big van and often seven of us in it,” son John Piasta of New York said. “Whether it was Morgan Hill or wherever, we could go to church, even if we were covered in mud or even if we were between games.”

Decades-old friend and former teacher at Cardinal Newman High School John Contreras called Piasta a pillar in the local Catholic community.

“First and foremost he was a man of faith,” he said. “He loved to see people thrive. He wanted to hear their story. He wanted to sit down and listen. He offered support and encouragement with words and action.”

Friend and colleague Judge Dana Simonds saw that in practice in his legal work.

They were colleagues for about two decades beginning in 1988, but friends for twice as long, she said.

“Joe was always enthusiastic about the law,” she said. “There were few people around who love the law as much as he does. He was scholarly about it, he was tenacious, he was a thorough preparer. And he was recognized for (it).”

Specifically, she said, with a membership in the American Board of Trial Advocates, something Simonds called “a very high honor.”

“Joe was tenacious about fighting for what was right,” she said. But that tenacity did not make Piasta a hardened person, she added.

“Joe was always in a good mood,” she said. “He had a very sunny disposition.”

And that held until the end, Frank Piasta said, despite his deteriorating health.

“This is a man who didn’t complain at all,” he said. “He kept a smile on his face. He was engaged, he had a smile, even with the grimmest of circumstances. It was baffling, to be honest.”

For Piasta Omreng, that disposition pointed to his devotion to his favorite role, as a father.

“Because of his love for us, he protected us to the end with his upbeat attitude and positive (outlook) and faith to the end,” she said.

In March, some of Piasta’s children took Kathy and Joe Piasta back to the USF campus to see the light pole that marked the spot where they both recalled meeting each other for the first time decades ago, as well as to the campus athletic fields, classrooms and lunch spots.

“It was a fun one,” John Piasta said. “We made a whole day of it.”

Piasta was unabashedly proud of the family he and Kathy built, Simonds said.

“Family was the most important thing to him and church was second,” she said. “And he loved the Army and he loved the law.

“He was a good human,” she said. “Honest, loyal, a great family man. Just a good human.”

In addition to Frank Piasta, John Piasta and Joan Piasta Omreng, Joe Piasta is survived by wife Kathy of Santa Rosa; daughters Mary Piasta Valluzzo of Napa, Ann Piasta of New York and Theresa Piasta of Santa Rosa; and son Edward Piasta of Atlanta; and nine grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 1244 St. Francis Road, Santa Rosa.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Piasta’s name to an endowed scholarship in Piasta’s honor at Cardinal Newman High School. Donations can be made online at https://www.cardinalnewman.org/make-a-gift2 or via check to Cardinal Newman High School, 4320 Old Redwood Hwy., Santa Rosa, CA 95403 with a note indicating the donation is in Piasta’s memory.

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Instagram @kerry.benefield.