Joe Buckley

Joseph Thaddeus Buckley died peacefully on January 9, 2025, at the age of 87. Joe was born on April 13, 1937, in Boston, Mass., the third child of Jack and Charlotte Buckley. He grew up in a large and loving family in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Boston’s Hyde Park. The Buckleys were very connected to their Irish roots, and family gatherings often included singing Irish folk songs. Joe would later regale his wife and children with stories of his youth featuring a colorful group of friends who hung out with him and his brothers at Nasser's Variety Store. They included “Glump” Gleavy and “Dark Cloud” Collins, who earned his nickname for his penchant for bringing up bad news. Much of his growing up revolved around his family’s Catholic faith and parish church, Most Precious Blood. Joe was an altar boy there and attended Catholic schools. An excellent student, he won a scholarship to attend Boston College High School and then went on to attend Boston College where he majored in mathematics. After graduation, Joe worked for a year in the Boston area at Sylvania before leaving his home and family to attend graduate school at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Soon after arriving in Bloomington, Joe met the love of his life, Ann Louise Thompson, who had come from Hayward, Cal., to Indiana University to study microbiology. They fell in love and were married nine months later at Most Precious Blood Church in June 1961. While studying in Bloomington, Joe and Ann welcomed their first child, Anne Teresa, in 1962. The following year, Joe followed his PhD advisor, Ernst Snapper, to Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. While in Hanover, Joe and Ann welcomed three more children, John Daniel in 1963, Paul Michael in 1965, and Timothy Joseph in 1967. After earning his doctorate in mathematics, Joe took a position at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He taught at UMass for three years before taking a position at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich. The family of six moved to Kalamazoo in 1970 where Joe began a rewarding career of teaching, research, and later administration.

When Joe and Ann bought a home on Maple Street in 1971, they met their lifelong friends, Hugh and Dottie Hoyle, who had recently moved from Illinois with their eight children and had bought a house three doors up. The Buckleys and Hoyles developed a deep bond. They celebrated many happy occasions together and supported each other through difficult times. Joe and Hugh loved each other like brothers. Many members of the Hoyle family visited Joe in his final days to express their love and pay their last respects.

Joe’s career at Western spanned 30 years. He received tenure in 1974, became a full professor in 1980, and served as department chair from 1984-1989. His time at Western overlapped with that of his dear friend and math colleague, Yousef Alavi, who passed away in 2013. Joe and Yousef would often co-conspire to wrangle funds from the administration for math department events. Yousef used to refer to them affectionately as “the two Joes.” Highlights of Joe’s career included two sabbatical leaves at the University of Wales, College of Cardiff, where he worked with Professor Jim Wiegold. What started as a professional collaboration grew into a close friendship, and Joe and Jim continued collaborating and corresponding until Jim’s death in 2009. When Jim died, Joe wrote, “The time of collaboration with him was the most satisfying period of my professional life… he was the most generous mathematician I ever met. He didn’t guard his math problems. He enjoyed sharing them with others.” In 1994, Joe was honored with the Western Michigan University Alumni Teaching Excellence Award recognizing superior teaching skills and professional expertise.

In 1986, Joe and Ann bought a home on Hillandale Drive in Kalamazoo’s Bronson neighborhood, across the street from their good friends Don and Kay Nelson. They lived on Hillandale for almost 40 years. This was the home their grandchildren knew, and countless family gatherings and celebrations took place there, including Joe and Ann’s 50th wedding anniversary party in 2011.

Joe enjoyed a vibrant life of the mind. There was never a time when he was not mulling over a math problem. Though he seemed to have all the time in the world for his family, in the background there was always math. After he retired in 2000, he immersed himself in the study of religion, reading extensively on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. As he did so, he became less denominational and began to see these religious traditions as intricately connected. In 2006-2007, he spent a year studying religion at Harvard Divinity School as a non-degree student. He continued to study religion, as well as history, physics, and philosophy for the rest of his life.

Joe was fortunate to enjoy good health for 20 years after he retired. During that time, he and Ann would travel to Carmel, Cal., every winter, visiting family and national parks on the way there and back. He was introduced to hiking as a young man when his friend Roland DiFranco invited him on a hike in New Hampshire's White Mountains, and he was hooked. He hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon three times, up to Yosemite Falls twice, and climbed Half Dome when he was in his fifties. As he looked back on his life, many of his most cherished memories were of hiking.

In late 2020, Joe began to show signs of what was ultimately diagnosed as Parkinson’s Disease. As he lost motor ability and became prone to falling, Ann became his primary caregiver with family and friends helping out as they could. She took very good care of him in their Hillandale home until his needs became too great. In October 2023, Joe and Ann moved to the Heritage Community with Ann in independent living and Joe down the hall in assisted living. She continued to be very involved in his caregiving to the point where the staff joked that she worked there. The family is grateful to the many wonderful staff at Meilland Square who took such good care of Joe.

Joe was a scholar and a gentleman. He saw the best in everyone, which made everyone want to be their best. There was not a cynical bone in his body. He loved parties and was often the last to leave, and he himself was a gracious host. A consummate people person, he took an interest in everyone he met. The depth of the friendships he formed was evident in the many ways that his friends stepped up to help as he began to decline, especially Don Nelson who made it possible for Joe to continue attending the Wednesday math lunches, Bob Felkel who visited Joe at Meilland Square regularly, and many others. The family is so grateful to you all.

Above all, Joe was a teacher, and he had a positive impact on generations of students. After retiring, Joe said it was the students he missed most. He was also a teacher and role model to his children and grandchildren. As his granddaughter Hannah once told him, “I always learn something when I talk to you.” When his grandson Aidan finally surpassed Joe in height, Aidan wrote, “I am now taller than you and always will be, but I’ll always look up to you.” Joe’s family, friends, and colleagues all admired and looked up to him. He will be dearly missed.

Joe was preceded in death by his parents, John and Charlotte Buckley, brother James Buckley, sister-in-law Amy Buckley, brother-in-law Charles Jurkeiwicz, and niece Celeste Hamm.

He is survived by his wife, Ann Buckley, children Anne Dueweke, John Buckley, Paul Buckley, and Tim (Kelly LeRoux) Buckley, grandchildren Sam (Liz) Dueweke, Ben Dueweke, Zack Dueweke, Hannah Buckley, Aidan Buckley, Jake Buckley, Mariel Buckley, and Joe Buckley, great grandsons David Dueweke and Noah Dueweke, brothers Daniel Buckley, John (Christine) Buckley, and Charles (Linda) Buckley, sisters Mary Ann Jurkeiwicz and Margaret (John) Barrett, sister- and brother-in-law Karen and Guy Maestas, sister-in-law Pat Thompson, and many nieces and nephews.

Please join us at a Life Story Visitation where food, drinks and stories will be shared on Thursday, January 16, from 5-7 PM at Betzler Life Story Funeral Homes, 6080 Stadium Drive, Kalamazoo (269) 375-2900. Mass will be celebrated Friday, January 17, at 10:30 AM at St. Thomas More Church, 421 Monroe Street. Following the mass there will be a luncheon at Martini's Restaurant, 832 S. Westnedge Ave., in downtown Kalamazoo.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: Centrica Care Navigators, Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan (https://centricacare.org/giving/), Heritage Community of Kalamazoo Legacy Fund (https://www.heritagecommunity.com/giving/) or The Joe Buckley Memorial Fund at Western Michigan University (Checks should be mailed to the WMU Foundation, 1903 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI 49008). Celebrate Joe's life online by sharing your favorite stories and photos on his dedicated webpage at BetzlerLifeStory.com.