DOMINIC VISCONSI

Cleveland real estate developer, philanthropist and WWII veteran, Dominic Visconsi, passed away peacefully with family by his side at his home in Russell, Ohio on November 17, 2025 at age 100.

He is survived by his companion of 38 years Bebe Weinberger, his children, Nicole Mawby of Gates Mills, OH; Anthoni Visconsi II (Lisa Moran) of Mayfield Heights, OH; Dominic Visconsi Jr. (Julie) of Hunting Valley, OH; Anthony Wood (Heather) of Carbondale, IL and Andy Corcoran (Margaret) of Freeland, MD., grandchildren Idie Atencio (Jonny), Tony Mawby (Lonny), Tommie Phillips (Tim), Claire Mawby, Anthoni Visconsi III (Suzanne Muyshondt), Natalie Visconsi (Kevin Klein), Olivia Visconsi, Max Wood, Christopher Corcoran, Ray Corcoran, and ten great-grandchildren, Willa Visconsi, Casper Visconsi, Isla Mawby, Charlotte Mawby, Tommy Mawby, Clark Mawby, Ellie Atencio, Jack Atencio, Evelyn Phillips, and Patrick Phillips.

Born in 1925 to Anthoni and Pauline Visconsi, he was one of five children. A fearless child, his father once saw Dominic walking across the Detroit Rd.-Rocky River Bridge as he balanced on its railing, some 100 feet above the water. Wary of startling him, his father drove to the end of the bridge and waited for his son to finish crossing before admonishing the elementary schooler. Ironically, he would have his pilot’s license suspended for flying a light plane under that very bridge during the late 1940’s.

After graduating from Kentucky Military Institute in 1943, Visconsi joined the Army’s elite, volunteer-only 10th Mountain Division, with friends, Marshall and Alan Bedol, and Robert Mattlin. Although the four lacked prior skiing experience, many months of rigorous training at Camp Hale, Colo. equipped them with the necessary skiing and mountaineering skills before shipping off to Italy. They arrived in Naples and advanced northward into battle where Visconsi was a member of the Medical Corps. He was awarded the Bronze Star for bravery when he and other medics raced into an active minefield to assist and rescue wounded soldiers whose truck had overturned after striking a mine.

Back in Cleveland after the war, he decided against continuing pre-med studies and joined his father’s real estate development company instead. Anthoni Visconsi had predicted in the early 1920s that the automobile would profoundly impact the way Americans shopped. He purchased nine acres of land in East Cleveland, on the corner of Euclid and Superior, from The John D. Rockefeller Foundation and built one of the country’s first shopping centers set back from the street to allow parking for many cars.

In 1955 when Dominic was 30, he formed a partnership with brothers Richard and David Jacobs that would grow by the early 80s to become one of the nation’s largest developers of shopping malls. By 1957, he would assist in the founding of the International Council of Shopping Centers, a global business association and trade group for the retail industry that today features more than 70,000 members in over 100 countries. The trio of Jacobs, Visconsi & Jacobs, Co. lasted until 1988, when they amicably parted to pursue independent investments. By this time Dominic’s sons, Anthoni II and Dominic Jr. owned and operated a real estate development company of their own, under the name Visconsi Co., Ltd.

Visconsi’s youthful daring matured into a passion for speed on land and water, owning a variety of Italian sports cars and high-performance boats. His classic Riva led to the acquisition of faster boats including a Magnum, then a Cigarette racing boat, and thus began his pursuit of the Offshore Powerboat Championship. In 1974 a custom designed race boat he owned caught fire with 500 gallons of high-octane fuel onboard during the Hennessy Grand Prix off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J. After watching the rescue of Dominic and his son Tony on NBC news, Visconsi’s mother requested he retire from racing; he honored her wishes. Decades later, he would come full circle and follow his son Dominic’s race boat in a helicopter with safety divers aboard, deploying the divers on two occasions when accidents had occurred. Eventually, the desire for a more leisurely boating experience led to nearly 30 years of entertaining friends and family aboard “Bingo”, plying the waters of Lake Erie and Southern Florida.

Visconsi regularly visited Los Angeles where he met actors and movie producers, even ending up with a speaking role as a hotel desk clerk in the 1977 Gene Hackman film, “The Domino Principle.”

In Cleveland he was a founding partner of the Front Row Theater, a theater-in-the-round that showcased the nation’s top musicians and comedians, opening with a performance by Sammy Davis Jr. in 1974.

Dominic Visconsi’s marriage to Eleanor Ferreri in 1947 ended in divorce in 1980, but the two remained friendly until she died in 2008 of Huntington’s Disease, a cause that he continued to support throughout the rest of his life.

Visconsi also generously contributed to the Cleveland Food Bank, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, University Hospitals, Playhouse Square, the Northern Ohio Italian American Foundation, and numerous other organizations.

Well into his 90’s, Visconsi was driving his Cadillac, spending Monday happy hour with a regular crew at Giovanni’s, enjoyed “guys night” every Thursday as well as lunch several times a week at Flour, and routinely spent the day in his office at Visconsi Co., Ltd., where a fourth generation Visconsi, Anthoni III, now works.

Mass of Christian Burial at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 6850 Mayfield Rd., Gates Mills, OH 44040 on Thursday December 4, 2025 at 10 a.m. Private Entombment at Sunset Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made in Dominic’s memory to: The Cleveland Food Bank, The Huntington’s Disease Society of America NE Ohio Chapter, University Hospitals or The Cleveland Clinic Foundation