64 | FEBRUARY 2 • 2023
OBITUARIES
OF BLESSED MEMORY
J
oseph I. Gadon, 91, a for-
mer supermarket executive
and retired certified finan-
cial planner, died Jan. 15, 2023,
in Minneapolis, Minn. He was
a longtime resident of Detroit
and more recently
of The Cascades in
St. Augustine, Fla.
The cause of death
was congestive heart
failure.
Born on March
13, 1931, in
Worcester, Mass., he
was the youngest of four children
born to Morris and Gertrude
(Zeldin) Gadon. Orphaned at
age 2, Joe and his older brother
Harold were sent to live with
cousins in Providence, R.I.
In childhood, Joe spoke with a
lisp. He fondly remembered his
older cousin helping him prac-
tice exercises to improve his pro-
nunciation. Joe joined the debate
team and theater club in high
school, where he applied himself
to becoming an expressive and
persuasive public speaker.
He graduated in January
1949 from Hope High School
in Providence as class valedicto-
rian. In September of that year,
Joe enrolled at the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He
developed several lasting friend-
ships, continued his involvement
in the theater and enlisted in the
Army ROTC.
Joe graduated with a psychol-
ogy degree in June 1953, just in
time to miss combat deployment
in Korea. He attended officers’
training school and served in
the Adjutant General’s Corps in
New Haven, Conn., at an Army
recruiting station.
Joe was introduced by a mutu-
al friend to Bernice Holland of
New Bedford, Mass., while he
was on active duty. He proposed
marriage and, after seven dates,
she accepted. They married on
Joe’s 24th birthday in 1955. The
couple moved to Cambridge,
Mass., following Joe’s acceptance
to the Harvard University School
of Business. He completed a mas-
ter’s degree in business adminis-
tration in 1957.
For the next 25 years, Joe
worked for four family-owned
businesses, mostly retail super-
markets. In 1959, his father-in-
law, Abram Holland, hired him
to manage People’s Supermarkets
in New Bedford, Mass. Joe
and Bernice relocated to New
Bedford and started a family.
Their son Robert was born in
1959 and daughter Anne in 1961.
In 1969, the family moved from
North Dartmouth, Mass., to
Metro Detroit after Joe accepted
a management position with
Chatham Supermarkets.
In 1982, at age 51, Joe was
forced to change careers after
Chatham was sold. Building on
his experience managing his own
family’s investments, he decided
to work professionally advising
others. Bache & Co. offered
him a starting position for one
year. The job involved a change
in status and pay and required
many hours cold calling leads
and coping with rejection. Joe’s
self-discipline, knowledge and
persuasive manner helped him
become established. In 1988, he
became a certified financial plan-
ner. Joe worked for three suc-
cessor firms, retiring from Wells
Fargo Advisors in Birmingham,
Mich., in 2015 after 33 years in
the industry.
Joe and Bernice joined the
Birmingham Temple in the late
1970s. There, he developed many
lasting friendships through his
involvement in the men’s group,
the players group and service on
the board of trustees. He served
as board president in 1989 and
again in 2000.
Joe enjoyed many hobbies
throughout his life. In the 1960s,
he was an avid photographer. His
family, friends and community
were frequent subjects for his
photographs. He ran the New
Bedford Science Fair for several
years.
In 1986, his wife was diag-
nosed with uterine cancer. In
1993, Bernice and eight other
women organized Gilda’s Club
Metro Detroit, a support center
for cancer patients and their fam-
ilies. Following Bernice’s death
in 1994, Joe, Anne and Robert
walked in the organization’s first
fundraiser held in downtown
Detroit. Joe generously support-
ed and advocated for Gilda’s Club
in its early years with both his
money and time.
In 1998, Joe met Gail Wolf
through a mutual friend. They
were married on April 2, 2000.
The couple enjoyed many good
years together, socializing with
the Temple community and
traveling to Central America and
Europe. They shared their home
with two spoiled dogs, Daisy, a
West Highland white terrier, and
Dreidel, a miniature border col-
lie. In 2015, Joe, Gail and Dreidel
retired to The Cascades in St.
Augustine, Fla., where they con-
tinued to live together until 2021.
Eager to join a community
theater in his new home, Joe
started a play reading group at
The Cascades. He organized
acting classes for non-actors and
directed at least one play a year
for several years in a row. His
production of 37 Postcards in early
2020 was postponed for more
than a year due to the pandemic.
By the time it was produced in
2021, Joe was too ill to direct.
Prior to the start of the second
performance, Joe was wheeled
into the community center and
honored for his contributions for
establishing the theater program.
He tried his hand at play-
writing and shadowed theater
directors at The Village Players in
Birmingham to learn the craft of
theater direction. He was active
with the Playwrites@Work, a
play-writing group at the Village
Players.
Neither of Joe’s children
produced any grandchildren.
Undaunted, Joe decided to adopt
his nephew Charles Gadon’s
children and stepchildren as his
own grandkids. Every year, he
was a presence at Gadon family
Thanksgiving get-togethers,
where he renewed his relation-
ship with his grandnephews and
nieces.
At The Cascades, Joe became
friends with Mark and Lois
Geisler. After becoming friends
with Mark’s grandson Nolan,
Nolan named their group The
Three Amigos.
In February 2021, Joe fell in
his home, sustaining life-threat-
ening injuries to his head and
neck. After a month-long hos-
pitalization that involved neuro-
surgery and intubation, Joe was
released to a skilled nursing facil-
ity. He was not able to recover
the ability to walk.
In early April, he was exposed
to COVID-19. He survived a
potentially fatal pneumonia.
In early May, his son Robert
enrolled Joe in hospice care and
returned Joe to his home, where
he could be cared for in familiar
surroundings. Joe slowly recov-
ered. Within five weeks, he was
able to sit up in bed and could
transfer to a wheelchair. During
Joe’s convalescence, Gail left to
live near her son Greg in Oregon.
Soon after, Robert and Joe
flew by air ambulance from St.
Augustine, Fla., to St. Louis, Mo.,
and Joe went to live in a skilled
nursing facility near Robert and
his wife, Barbara. In St. Louis,
Joe’s body and mind slowly
A Life of Involvement
Joseph
Gadon
c. 1989