Joe was born across the street from our mother, Marion, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They attended the same junior high, high school and university. He and Mom became a couple during college at Rutgers and married in 1951 after she finished her BA and Dad completed his Master’s. They moved to Pasadena where Dad earned his doctorate in microbiology at Cal Tech. Dad studied viruses with Linus Pauling, and Mom worked to put Dad through graduate school.
After Joe finished his PhD, the couple moved to Long Island, NY where Dad had a post-doc fellowship and Linnea and Douglas were born. In 1958, when Douglas was 3 months old, they moved to Palo Alto for Dad do research at the Stanford Research Institute. Dana, their third child, was born in 1960, the same year they bought the house in Palo Alto, which is still the family home.
After years of research, Joe decided to switch to teaching. He became chair of the Biology Department at University of Santa Clara where he taught microbiology, biology and genetics and was required to dress very conservatively. Then Joe moved to West Valley College and taught biology, microbiology and chemistry. In this informal environment of the 60s and 70s, Dad grew long hair and wore a leather headband. He was much beloved by his students who thought he was a “really cool” professor.
Joe was known for making his classes especially fun. He liked to include science jokes at the ends of his exams, and the sound of giggles would let him know when a student had reached the end of a test. His microbiology labs included food applications like making sourdough starter, yogurt, and beer. He would bring home samples of the latest lab experiments, and I remember tasting bread that was so sour it was like eating lemons!
Joe and Marion were introduced to folk dancing in college gym class and folk dance and music remained a passion throughout their life together. While dad was at Cal Tech, they danced and taught regularly at the Pasadena Folk Dance Coop. When they moved back to Long Island, there was no folk dancing nearby, so they started their own club in Huntington. In Palo Alto, they danced with the Palomanians and nearby groups, and attended parties with the Santa Clara Valley Folk Dancers. They also started a children’s folk dance club that attracted 50-60 children every Friday night, and directed the Palo Alto Junior Folk Dancers children’s group that participated in Kolo Festival and United Nations Day festivals. For about ten years, Dad and Mom took the family to summer folk dance week at Feather River Camp near Quincy.
When Joe retired at 65, he kept very busy! He fulfilled a lifetime dream of learning to play violin, and played for 15 years with the senior community orchestra. Joe volunteered in the schools, teaching science and assisting music teachers by tuning instruments and coaching children. He also served on the board of the Friends of the Mendocino Woodlands.
Dad attended Mendocino Balkan Camp and Folklore Camp for many years where he was known as a beloved camp Grandpa to many people, as well as the guy who liked to wear silly hats. Joe especially loved his tamburitza, violin, and accordion classes with John Morovich, Miamon Miller, Mark Forry, Beth Cohen, and Michael Lawson, and the family would like to express our appreciation for all the joy these wonderful teachers brought to him.
Joe enjoyed woodworking, and made some of the furniture that is still in the house. He also built the counter for the Palo Alto ice cream store now known as Rick’s Rather Rich. He was paid in ice cream, so for much of our childhood we had continuous supply of delicious ice cream! Dad was an enthusiastic photographer who spent many hours developing photos in his garage dark room. A dedicated mycologist, Joe was president of the San Francisco Mycological Society for 2 years, and started a small commercial mushroom farm. He served as a mushroom expert for the poison control line and assisted when someone’s child or pet ate an unidentified mushroom.
Years ago, when Joe admired a carved wooden frog, his friends assumed he especially liked frogs and gave him all kinds of frog-related items, starting what eventually became a family tradition. We thus grew up in a house filled with every imaginable kind of frog and mushroom, including shirts that Mom would sew for him.
Dad also loved going to weekend yard sales with Marion and eating breakfast every Sunday at Hobees where like on
Cheers, everyone knew his name.
Joe was always known for his kindness, cheer, and warm heartedness. He was quick with a joke or pun and everyone enjoyed his intelligent and interesting conversations. He will be fondly remembered by all who knew him.
The Mandells would like to encourage everyone to contribute stories, photos and memories to this online memorial. (And add interesting stories about Joe to the "Stories" section.) Additional ways to remember Joe might include singing, playing, or dancing in his memory or contributing to the
EEFC in his name.
by Linnea Mandell (with editorial help from family members, Dana Mandell, Douglas Mandell, Miriam Lewis, Craig Kurumada, Marion Mandell)
