Joseph H Spitzner

Joseph Spitzner, 73, of Ponte Vedra, Florida, died Friday, November 13, 2015 after a short battle with cancer. Born on July 30, 1942 in Chicago, IL to the late David and Ann Spitzner, Joe was a long-time Columbus, OH resident, moving there in 1968 to teach at The Ohio State University, after obtaining his PhD in Psychology from Rutgers University. Joe shared his love of music and his songwriting, guitar playing and singing talent with many people – first his children, in whom he instilled their lifelong taste for 60’s rock and more recently, the residents of the Nocatee, FL community where he and his wife Marion retired in 2014 and were quickly embraced by a loving and supportive community. He entertained many members of the community there playing a lengthy repertoire of rock, folk and blues songs. Joe was a lifelong learner and endlessly curious. He accomplished a great deal in a series of eclectic careers from his days teaching psychology at OSU (where his greatest accomplishment was meeting his wife and best friend Marion), to serving the community through private practice, to teaching himself to become an early software developer which led to a later life career working with his son Jeffrey Spitzner in several innovative business start-ups (Visual Genomics, LabBook and Rescentris) that combined their love for science and technology. Joe was also an accomplished bridge player, a crossword puzzle solver extraordinaire and a voracious reader, usually reading at least one nonfiction book and one fiction book at a time. Joe and Marion also loved traveling together and enjoyed trips over the years to Europe, Asia and many U.S. national parks, as well as their local parks, where they were able to experience their love of nature together. This led to their wintering along the St. Johns River to escape the cold Ohio winters, culminating in their move in 2014 to Nocatee with which Joe quickly fell in love. Joe is survived by his wife of nearly 40 years, Marion, his sons Jeffrey of Columbus, OH and Gavin (Lisa) of Basking Ridge, NJ and grandchildren, Benjamin, Juliana and Cole. He also leaves his sister Judy Rosenblatt of St. Paul, MN and nephews Seth of Monsey, NY and Ira of Great Falls, VA. He will also be sadly missed by his golden retriever, Zehava. There will be a private interment and memorial service and the family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made in Joe’s name to the Kidney Cancer Association (kidneycancer.org).