After a lifetime of serving San Joaquin Valley farmers through his family's nearly century-old agricultural business, Michael "Mike" John Calosso died last month at age 79.

"He was very wise in the industry," Jeff King, Calosso's son-in-law and current head of the family business, said.

"He'd been through it all ... he was kind of a legend in this area."

Calosso was born in Stockton in 1942. He attended St. Mary's High School as well as San Joaquin Delta College, Washington State University and California State University, Sacramento. 

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In 1980 Calosso took over M. Calosso & Son, a produce packing and supply company founded in 1924 by his great-grandfather, Lorenzo Calosso.

"I like the individual growers. Each one has a different need. You have to mold yourself around that customer," Calosso told The Record in 2005.

Lawrence Sambado met Calosso as a teenager. Sambado's fruit business, Linden-based Prima Frutta, went on to buy over a million apple, walnut and cherry containers from Calosso over the years.  

"He was very fair. Very generous," Sambado said.

When M. Calosso & Son's building on Miner Avenue caught fire on the Fourth of July, in 2013, the company's suppliers jumped through hoops to replace damaged materials within a day — a testament to Calosso's rock-solid business relationships, King said.

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Calosso anchored the business through other challenges over the years, too.

When the produce industry stopped using wood crates in favor of cardboard boxes, Calosso repurposed his company's crate-making equipment to make high-end gift boxes for wine and successfully pitched the idea to wine companies, King said.

King recalled tough years when bad weather would wipe out the crops Calosso's business relied on.

"I remember sitting in May watching it rain, knowing the crop was washing away ... he was always very stoic when that would happen," King said.

Calosso had a tough exterior, but on the inside he was "a big teddy bear," his eldest daughter, Brenda Pozzo, said.

"My dad was very fond of teasing people and bantering back and forth ... that was the way he showed you he liked you."

Calosso's wry humor was on display whenever he played gin with Pozzo as a child, she said. "To play gin with my dad was an experience."

"He would fling a card and it would scatter the junk (card) pile ... the teasing and the banter that would go back and forth would be pretty epic."

"He was a demanding boss," King said. "But once you had his trust, he really gave you a lot of freedom ... he really mentored me a lot."

Pozzo recalled that before Calosso died, he told her, "At my funeral, you tell everybody I did it my way. And you play that Frank Sinatra song."

Calosso died on March 22 at Fairmont Rehabilitation Hospital in Lodi following complications from a stroke.

He is survived by his wife Gay Calosso, his sister, three daughters and sons-in-law, five grandchildren and an infant great-grandson who he was fortunate to meet shortly before his death.

Record reporter Aaron Leathley covers business, housing, and land use. She can be reached at aleathley@recordnet.com or on Twitter @LeathleyAaron. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at recordnet.com/subscribenow.