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