
Albert Joseph
“I don’t know why we’re on this Earth, I never have understood why we’re on this Earth. I really mean that. But I know that as long as we are here and that if we are kind and giving and forgiving and generous that life is better for all of us. I’d like to be remembered as one who gave what he could, in time, money and effort, to this huge project, this beneficial, munificent project for all of America.”
- Albert Joseph
His Story
Albert Joseph on what drove early support for Danny’s Dream (From His Promise)
Chicago publisher Albert Joseph, who first joined ALSAC when he was a young marketing-advertising professional from Toledo, gives a very good reason for the spirit that drove them in the early years. ‘We were part of the general euphoria that this was one hell of a country to be a citizen in,’ Joseph says in regard to Arab Americans in the early 1950s. He speaks with pride of their role in America’s World War II effort and their increasing prosperity and pride as a people afterward. Joseph says Danny captured that euphoria and inspired them. "Our attitude was, We can’t let Danny down. We can’t let our people down."

Albert Joseph became a member of the ALSAC/St. Jude Board of Directors and Governors in 1959, three years before St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital opened its doors. He later served as First Vice Chair of the ALSAC Board of Directors from 1976-1978 and then Chair from 1978-1980. He became Vice Chair of the St. Jude Board of Governors in 1982, serving through 1984. He was chair of the Board of Governors from 1984 to 1986. Joseph achieved Board Emeritus status in 1996.
In addition to his service as an officer, he led various committees during his decades on the Board, including heading up the Finance Committee during the early 1990s as ALSAC and St. Jude planned for an expansion of the St. Jude mission. He also established the Albert and Rosemary Joseph Endowed Chair in Genetic Research at St. Jude, which today is held by Gerard C. Grosveld, PhD, Chairman of the Genetics Department at St. Jude.
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The Al Joseph family also funded the creation and installation of the stained-glass windows in the Danny Thomas/ALSAC Pavilion. According to an early brochure about the windows, published by the St. Jude Public Relations Department, the idea for the windows originated with St. Jude founder Danny Thomas. “During the summer of 1990, Thomas visited the hospital and met with Fred P. Gattas Jr., then chair of the Danny Thomas/ALSAC Pavilion Committee. Thomas had a list of improvements he wanted Gattas to carry out. One thing he wanted was stained-glass windows installed in the Pavilion chapel. He wanted these windows to reflect the ecumenical mission of St. Jude Hospital,” states the brochure.
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When ALSAC/St. Jude Board member Al Joseph heard about Thomas’ request, he took on the project himself. Thomas died in February 1991, before the stained-glass windows had begun. The project allowed Joseph to give his friend a permanent gift. It continues a long history shared by the two dynamic men. The Joseph family funded the project in its entirety.
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At the dedication of the windows, Joseph spoke of how the windows were given in tribute to Danny Thomas, “whom I loved and admired and whose great goodness survives and multiplies in St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and ALSAC.” Urging those present at the dedication to be wary of those who want to be something instead of doing something, Joseph went on to say: “May these windows with the carving of the Lord’s Supper that came from Danny’s home bring inspiration and peace to all who enter into the chapel and may that chapel, this institution, and above all, the work of St. Jude and ALSAC go on for generations to come. May the proudest boast of women and men centuries from now be that I, in some manner, served ALSAC and St. Jude."
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