Joseph Lawrence Midler

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Celebration of Life for Joseph Midler

May 2, 2021, 11:00 AM US/Pacific

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Joseph Lawrence Midler

April 05, 1934 - February 17, 2021

We created a GatheringUs memorial to celebrate the life of Joseph Lawrence Midler. Collecting your stories and memories here will offer us great comfort. Click on the heart to let us know you were here and to receive email updates. Thank you for contributing to this lasting memorial.

OBITUARY

Joseph Lawrence Midler, 86, left us on February 17, 2021 in Sunnyvale, California. Joe was born in New York City, the only child of Diana (Goldman) and Gilbert Midler. He lived on the Lower East side of Manhattan, Long Beach, Long Island, and in the Bronx - surrounded by both grandmothers and some of his many aunts and uncles. During his short time in New York, Joe experienced many of the gems of city life with his father, such as... see moreJoseph Lawrence Midler, 86, left us on February 17, 2021 in Sunnyvale, California. Joe was born in New York City, the only child of Diana (Goldman) and Gilbert Midler. He lived on the Lower East side of Manhattan, Long Beach, Long Island, and in the Bronx - surrounded by both grandmothers and some of his many aunts and uncles. During his short time in New York, Joe experienced many of the gems of city life with his father, such as riding the ferries and subways to museums, zoos, a planetarium, and taking in radio programs and music at RCA and Radio City Music Hall. He even got to the 1941 World’s Fair and learned what the future would look like with cars, freeways, and airplanes. He loved all of it. In 1941, when Joe was 7, it was recommended that his mother move to Tucson, Arizona for the drier, warmer climate, more suitable for her rheumatoid arthritis.

Joe and his family settled in Tucson, then a city of only 25,000, full of dude ranches and cowboys. Joe lived there until he left for his first year of college at Shimer College in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, later completing his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Mathematics, and his Master of Arts in Economics at the University of Chicago. It was here he met his future wife, Joan (Bayles) Midler, and their daughter, Anne Elizabeth Midler was born. Lifelong friends were made.

After completing his Master’s degree, Joe took a year off and the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and eventually to the University of Wisconsin at Madison to do doctoral work in Economics. While working on his dissertation, Joe was wooed to the RAND Corporation, an intriguing think tank in Los Angeles, where they moved in 1964. Joe and the family lived in Pacific Palisades, California for 27 years, during which time Anne left to attend University of Chicago, and sadly, in 1984 Joan died.

Joe spent many interesting years over a career that used his expertise in operations research and management science, making mathematical models for everything from transportation usage, water usage, military airlift deployment, and aerospace development, which took him to Bangladesh, the New York Stock Exchange, the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to name a few.

Joe had a lifetime love of jazz music, film, modern art and architecture, improvisational theater, politics, physics, the beach, travel, and cooking.

In 1991, Joe met Suzanne Ryan, a fellow jazz fan and singer, and they married in 1997. They spent many years together enjoying music, traveling, and visiting family until her death in 2015.

Joe is survived by his daughter Anne Midler, son-in-law Mark Goldsmith, and two grandchildren, Jonathan and Rebecca Goldsmith.

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