Six months before he died, Joe wrote his own obituary:

Joseph was raised on the South Side of Chicago, where he lived in Fernwood, and later in Little Flower parish with his parents and eleven brothers and sisters (Irish Catholic) .

After graduating from Fernwood's Saint Helena of the Cross School in 1958, Joseph attended Mendel Catholic High School (formerly Pullman Tech). There he was relegated to classes in wood shop and mechanical drawing. Joseph graduated near the bottom of his class in 1962 from Little Flower High School.

He entered Lewis College in Lockport, Illinois on probation. After his first year, he was awarded a scholarship and a National Defense Education Act loan, which was eventually forgiven for his work with remedial reading students at Elk Grove High School. He graduated from Lewis in 1966. He went on the earn an M.S.Ed. from Northern Illinois University, specializing in reading instruction. He paid for all of his education from funds he earned as a paperboy, house cleaner, helper in a flower shop, clothing salesman, and bartender. During college, he worked as a helper on a Budweiser beer truck, eventually putting beer into just about every bar south of Roosevelt Road.

Following college, Joseph taught remedial reading, mainstream English, Advanced Placement English, English as a Second language, poetry, film study, and Young Adult Education Program (dropouts) for decades in Illinois High School District 214, at Elk Grove, Wheeling, and Rolling Meadows high schools. He finished his 47th year in education in China, where he lived from 2010 to 2013, teaching English at Guangxi University in China, Guangxi, Nanning.

Joseph was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars for School Teachers: "Mozart, the Man, his Music and his Vienna" (Vienna, 1989), and "The French Cathedral as a Reflection of Medieval Life" (Paris, 1996) He was selected Outstanding Educator of the Chicagoland Area, University of Chicago (1984). He was the recipient of various awards in High School District 214 for leadership in education.

Joseph lived part time in Paris, France with his wife, Patricia Tennison, in the Marais apartment they purchased in 2003. He had fluency in French, a conversational level in Chinese Mandarin, and a conversational level in German, plus a reading level sufficient to read works by Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche.

In his twenties he learned to play guitar and harmonica in the style of Bob Dylan. He took many trips to Nashville in efforts to sell his songs. He was proud of his rejections, which included Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Later, Joseph published a book of his poetry and photographs, The Cathedrals of France: a Poet's View, which was carried by the famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.

He traveled extensively in the United States driving the full length (469 miles) of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and most of our western national parks and monuments. In the Grand Canyon, he spent twenty-one days "below the rim," including a three-day walk from the North Rim down to the river and then up to South Rim. Then, he joined a group for the full length of the Canyon, 277 miles in 18 days in wooden Irish dories. Later, he traveled extensively in Europe and Asia.

Joseph enjoyed cooking for family and friends. He studied Chinese cuisine with Chu Yen Luke and Pansy, pizza making with Chicago Sun Times columnist Pat Bruno, and French haute cuisine with Juan and Manuel Snowden at Dumas Pere Restaurant and Cooking School in Glenview, Illinois. He learned how to make bread at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

A little boy with his mother in Fernwood Park, a gypsy took his hand and traced a line. You'll live a long life and have a lot of girlfriends. She didn't say that a lot of girlfriends bring heart ache, or that in the end, it would be his heart that would do him in.

Joseph is survived by his wife, Patricia Tennison; step-daughter Ashley (Tim) Sommars; and two grandchildren, Autumn and Jaxon Sommars. The oldest of twelve children, he is survived by Bill, Mike, Jack, Mary Murtaugh, Margaret Holtschlag, Patricia Lytle, Tim, Dan, Anne Hilliard, Anthony, and Dorothy Gable.

Donations to the Endowed Dr. David Mehlman Echocardiography Fellowship: giving.northwestern.edu/cardio