Joseph W Berkeley

Joe Berkeley Sr. of Darien, Connecticut died peacefully on Monday, March 16th, 2026 at the age of 89. He was born in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts and was adored by his parents, Margaret Berkeley, his father William Francis Berkeley, and his Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Al. He enjoyed an idyllic childhood on Ainsley Street, with a ballfield next to the family compound which contained numerous outbuildings filled with his father’s tools.

He excelled in school, graduated from Boston College High School and moved on to Boston College. In the summers, he assisted his father installing industrial heating systems in commercial buildings and concluded that grit, grime, and manual labor were not for him. He had a keen mind, quick hands, and thought he had a calling to be a doctor. One year at the University of Pennsylvania was enough to cure him of that notion as organic chemistry never made sense to him. The experience did make him a lifelong fan of medicine in general and Massachusetts General Hospital in particular.

Returning to Boston, he procured employ at Boston Edison and sought to improve his lot in life. Every day, he would open his yellow legal pad to a fresh page and with blue Bic pen in hand make a list of things he should accomplish. At the top of the list was a Masters of Business degree.  He attended Suffolk University, graduated with an MBA, and started a career in finance.

In the early days, he would write a list of things to accomplish, drink a giant cup of coffee, then not allow himself to leave his rotary phone to visit the gentleman’s room until the tasks were completed.  Some men love the New England Patriots. Others adore the Boston Red Sox. Joe Berkeley loved business, the bigger the better.

He commuted from Scituate, Massachusetts to Detroit, Michigan to work at the Ford Motor Company, where he met Henry “Hank the Deuce” Ford and was astonished by the train loads of automobiles that were shipped across the horizon, across the country.

When the long-distance travel became troublesome, he returned to Boston and became a stock broker at A.G. Becker. He loved to entertain clients, dine at Lock Obers in Boston, wear Brooks Brothers suits, drive his Cadillac, and excel at his job. He also ran every day, long before the practice became fashionable.

In the early 1980s, a friend and mentor Norton Reamer opened a new firm and Joe Berkeley became an early investor in United Assets Management. His initiative and hard work paid off as he was able to retire in his forties and enjoy “life on the beach” for 40 years, including many happy decades in Osterville on Cape Cod.

He was married twice, first to Mary Walsh, second to Peggy Eisen. Both marriages ended in divorce and he retired from the institution, noting that “love is nature’s trick.”

He had five children and he loved four of them, Joe Berkeley Jr, Will Berkeley, Emily Wenner, and Meggie Simmons the exact same amount. His fifth child, Nick Eisen-Berkeley, he loved the most. Nick took all of his father’s lessons to heart and pursued a career in finance, becoming a huge success at one of the institutions Joe Berkeley Sr admired most, JP Morgan. Nick’s siblings accept the fact that he was the favorite and do not hold it against him.

All five of Joe Berkeley Sr’s children, his eight grandchildren, and many of his friends benefited from his wisdom and advice. He was a lifelong fan of Winston Churchill and his favorite quote was, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

There will be a service for Joe Berkeley Sr at the Robert J. Lawler & Crosby Funeral Home at 1803 Centre Street, West Roxbury, Massachusetts at 10:00 am on March 28th, 2026, followed by a burial at Mt. Benedict Cemetery, where Joseph will be laid to rest with his beloved parents, aunt, and uncle. Family and friends are welcome. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to Massachusetts General Hospital, where Joe Sr was a frequent and grateful recipient of life prolonging medical care.