Philip Mason

I last saw Joe one summer before Covid. We met for lunch on Lake Winnipesaukee. At the time he told me he was very much into photography and I am disappointed that I was unable to see any of his works. I did not realize that Joe lived in Laconia until our 50th reunion. I spent many springs on NH rivers and passed through Laconia many times; I would have visted him sooner.

As I was not close to Joe after Allderdice, I enjoyed spending a good deal of time with him at our 50th. He road his bike all the way from NH to Pittsburgh for the event!! 

May his memory be a blessing.

Michael Brourman

Joe was my best friend at Colfax, which I started in the second grade. His grandparents lived on the corner of Beechwood Blvd and Forward Ave, a half block from our house. (His uncle was Abby Mann, who won an Oscar for the screenplay "Judgment at Nuremberg.") Joe's dad had an optometry practice in Braddock and his mom still worked there part-time back then (although her time became more and more taken up by the births of Joe's younger siblings, Trudy, Sara and Jack), so he spent a lot of time at his grandparents, which effectively meant a lot of time with me. We were both in Workshop so we had the whole day of classes together. We played wiffle ball on our driveway and football over in the "tennis court" of the Hamburg house across the street.

Joe was a terrific athlete. We had our first golf lessons together and his parents took me with them when they took the family to Seven Springs for the first time to go skiing. Joe was much better than me at both sports and pursued both for far longer. We bowled one or two nights a week at Forward Lanes for a few years when we got a little older. Because his dad had a business in Braddock, he was eligible to play for the Braddock Little Steelers junior football team and he managed to get me a tryout. He slept over my house the night before the tryout and we were wearing shoulder pads in my room and he suddenly threw a low block which flipped me over and badly sprained my ankle, ending my Braddock Little Steelers career before it began. His dad had played Minor League baseball and worked with both of us to improve our games. 
 

When we started TAHS, we spent far less time with each other. We were in different homerooms and different classes (except for AP Calculus and AP History), and we quickly became part of different circles. Occasionally, we would have lunch together, but that was the extent of it.  I only saw Joe twice after TAHS. Once, when he was living in a row house in Baltimore and attending John's Hopkins, I crashed on his couch one weekend when I went to try to rekindle a relationship I had with a classmate at Pitt who was working for the NSA near Baltimore. And, he surprised my by coming to my wedding in San Francisco in 1984. But, we never missed a telephone call,  or in recent years,  a message to the other on our respective birthdays  and since his birthday is in November, he almost always said he might end up coming to California to ski Mammoth, and if he did would stop by for a few days. However, he never did. 
 

I sincerely hope there will posts here from some of those with whom he remained close to discuss his work, his family and his skiing. As for me, I am in total shock. I always thought that Joe would be the last surviving member of our class. 

David Slavkin

Remembering Joe and Diana from our 50th. Joe was quite proud of his photographs of The Golden Triangle and the Point that he had taken from The LaMont brunch following the reunion. Difficult to lose another classmate, especially given his active lifestyle. My condolences to his family and friends.

Paul Safyan

I wish I had maintained contact with Joe.  He was a true Renaissance man, both highly eudcated and skilled and grounded.

Al McLaine

After the 50th reunion, we made plans to get together. He came to our place in Vermont for a pig roast, and I went to New Hampshire for a hike on Mt. Jefferson. I am sad he died, and in fact the news was a gut punch to me.

Marvin Chosky

Unfortunately, I lost contact with Joseph after high school. However, I did talk to him at the 50th. I remember him as a "Mensch." Unfortunately too late to thank him, I appreciate his compliment about our Calculus Class. I couldn't agree more. 

Tom Allison

I thought that I should come out of my recent hiding and say a few nice things about Joe Sack. It is the very least that I can do for a great classmate and good friend who was thoughtful enough to posthumously pay me and some other classmates a wonderful compliment.  This is from his obituary:

“He always said that the smartest group of people he ever met was his high school calculus class.”

I have come to realize that I knew most of my Allderdice classmates only in a limited time frame – 3 years, in my case, as we Mifflin students didn’t arrive at Allderdice until 10^th grade – and limited context – high school, and then maybe only in one class or one activity.  Yet, I spent enough time with Joe to think I knew him well – we were in many classes together, including that calculus class that he remembers so fondly.  He was a bright, gentle, thoughtful person with a good sense of humor, and it was clear then that he would lead a good life and make substantial contributions, as his obituary confirms.

One of the highlights of the 50^th reunion for me was renewing acquaintance and friendship with Joe.  We had a particularly nice discussion at the Sunday brunch up on Mt. Washington.  Looking through the pictures from that event, there are some pictures of each of us, but unfortunately none together.  Joe invited me to come out to New Hampshire to pay a visit, which I accepted.  The invitation and acceptance were very general – no specific date or event set.  “Knowing how way leads onto way,” as Robert Frost tells us, it is not surprising that I never did pay him that visit, New Hampshire not being on the way to anywhere I was going between then and now.  I am sure that it would have been nice to meet his family, friends, and colleagues in his home setting.

Well, Joe, I believe I speak not only for myself but all those in our class who knew you when I say, “you will be missed.”

Henry Henry (Herskovitz)

Whenever I heard Joe's name, I instantly remembered Rick Slone's nickname for him: "Joe da' Rough!" and assume it was golf-related. Joe was super-decent, and the fact that he bicycled to the 50th makes his passing all the more shocking

Janice Richman

What I most remember about hanging out with Joe in high school were ski trips to Laurel Mountain.

Joe was a great skier and became super keen on wedeln. I loved hearing about it and watching him, though I never got any further than a stem christie in those days. But he was poetry in motion.

I tried to talk him into coming to the 60th, but he told me he had health problems and wouldn't be able to make it.

I miss him.