Joseph E. Geshwiler

Joseph E. Geshwiler, 89, an Atlanta newspaper writer and editor from 1979 to 2004, died at his Westborough, MA home of respiratory failure. His memorial Mass at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, GA will be on Saturday, October 3rd at 1:00 PM. Joe is survived by his beloved wife of 67 years, Micki Geshwiler; a son, James (Erin) Geshwiler of Hopkinton, Mass.; a daughter, Sara Jordan of Westborough, Mass; two grandsons, Connor Geshwiler and Alex Geshwiler of Hopkinton; two granddaughters, Jessica Jordan of Atlanta and Rachel Jordan of Sylva, NC; and two brothers, Bill Geshwiler of Maryville, Tenn., and Rick (Tatyana) Geshwiler of Jacksonville, Fla. Born in Indianapolis, Joe was the son of the late Elton and Connie Geshwiler. He grew up in suburban Beech Grove, where his father was mayor for 33 years and taught Joe that politics could be civil and constructive. Joe began his journalism career while in high school as a prep sports reporter for the Indianapolis Star. He attended Indiana University, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in political geography. He joined the Chicago Daily News staff in 1964 and held several key editor’s positions there. In 1979, Joe joined the Atlanta Constitution as national and foreign editor and built a corps of freelance reporters positioned around the globe. Moving to the Constitution’s opinion page in 1983, he wrote more than 4,000 opinion articles over a 17-year span, often on foreign affairs but also on criminal justice, political and economic development issues. He proudly referred to himself as “one of those damned Constitution liberals.” As a member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, he traveled with other opinion writers on NCEW-sponsored fact-finding trips. In columns he wrote for the Constitution, he noted the preening butterflies of Buenos Aires’ upper class and suggested what Argentina needed were more worker ants. He detected heightening signs of life in Cambodia after its nightmarish Khmer Rouge reign of terror. In Jerusalem, he was on the receiving end of rocks thrown by Palestinian boys in a hair-trigger resort to violence. He was impressed with the indomitable grit of Bosnians who were intent on rebuilding their battered capital city after the long and brutal Serbian siege of Sarajevo. After retiring in 2004, he wrote feature obituaries for the AJC as a free-lancer – life stories, he preferred to call them. In response, he received many notes of thanks from bereaved families for capturing the essence of their loved ones. Joe was a choral singer from his teen years up to his 80s, and attributed his career-long fascination with faraway places to an eye-opening eight-week USO-sponsored tour he took in 1955 of U.S. bases in Japan and South Korea with a 28-voice IU ensemble called the Singing Hoosiers. While a freshman at IU, he designed a logo for the Singing Hoosiers that the group still uses today. He later sang with Episcopal choirs in Chicago and Atlanta, including those at the Cathedral of St. Philip and at St. Luke’s. With the latter choir, he and Micki took part in a 12-day performance tour in England in 2005. Joe was also a longtime volunteer with Compeer Atlanta, the Center for the Visually Impaired, and Buckhead Christian Ministry, and practiced hands-on help for people in need.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in his name to the Buckhead Christian Ministry, the Center for the Visually Impaired, or a charity of your choosing.