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The following is what Joel wrote in the New Trier West 20-Year Reunion Memory Book in 1990:
Following college I lived in the south of Switzerland for one year working as an architect. Upon returning to Chicago I worked with Skidmore Owings & Merrill as an architect/sr. designer for six years and in 1982 moved to San Francisco leaving the Chicago winters behind. I am currently director of design for a large California architectural/interiors firm and have recently had several projects published in Designer's West & selected interior design magazines while Monsanto Corporation selected one of my projects as the 1989 first place winner in its annual design competition for business interiors. When not working I'm having fun with my lover, Dan, and volunteer an afternoon a week to helping prepare hot meals for homebound people with AIDS.
Joel died of AIDS on March 31, 1992 at the age of 39.
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Judy Meikle
While not attending NT West, I was fortunate enough to know Joel in high school though mutual friends from Glencoe. Joel always had an artistic flair even back then & was very successful with the ladies as not only good looking but really nice and a kind gentleman. Even though we both attended Washington University in St Louis; he was slaving away in the architecture school; always in the midst of a project or two. We would plan our semi-annual get together during the academic year way in advance due to his intense schedule and even then he might have to reschedule; we always got together once a semester. Amazing that you attend the same Universith and had to schedule visits but he worked very hard in undergrad. When he was in Switzerland, I was scheduled to go to Dubrovnik that fall. When he left the country his parents had me over for lox & bagels the Sunday morning he left. Joel promised to meet me in Dubrovnik. Sure enough, I was riding a city bus my second day in Dubrovnik, saw Joel out the bus window so pulled the cord and jumped off as he followed the bus. We had such a great time, going to Sarajevo long b4 their bridge was bombed and even a very long trip to Split when the bus broke down coming back. That year really changed Joel; I saw him in Chicago after but was never as close after he officially ‘came out’. Not sure why but never stopped thinking about him even after he had moved to Northern CA. Kept up some through his parents but eventually lost track of him until I heard that he had passed away from Aids. Truly a good man, once my close friend, gone long before his time. 💕