Joseph L. Podesta Sr., of Juno Beach, Florida, passed away peacefully on June 19^th in Florida, surrounded by his loving family.

Joe was born and raised in Manhattan and spent his summers at the family home in Sawkill, New York with his extended family.  Joseph married the love of his life, Joan, in 1964. The two would raise their family in East Brunswick, New Jersey before moving to Brick on the Metedeconk River, where he spent time gardening, tending to his koi pond, and spending time with family and friends.

Joe began his career at Colgate Palmolive, working there from 1958-1973, while taking night classes at the City College of New York in Manhattan. Starting in the mailroom, he worked his way up to become a Product Marketing Manager. After leaving Colgate, Joe went to work for Major League Baseball from 1973 to 1985. As the President of Major League Baseball Promotion Corporation, which included running the television production division for baseball known as Major League Baseball Productions, Joe was responsible for promoting the game of baseball. Under Joe’s leadership, MLB Productions created some of its most iconic content, including the groundbreaking television show This Week In Baseball (affectionately known as TWiB) hosted by the great Mel Allen, and the generational kids educational show, The Baseball Bunch. Joe also served as an ambassador for the game, traveling to countries in Central and South America, and Asia, including taking teams to Japan during the offseason to play exhibition games against professional Japanese teams.

In 1985, MLB decided to outsource MLB Productions. Joe took a chance and started his own media production company, The Phoenix Communications Group, which became the Official Production Company of MLB and later, NHL Productions. In addition to continuing to produce marquee television shows for the MLB and NHL, Joe’s production company started SportsNews Satellite (SNS), a sports highlight feed news service covering over 10,000 professional and collegiate sporting events per year. SNS provided daily sports highlight packages to hundreds of television stations and regional cable sports networks across the country. For over 25 years, sports highlights from SNS were viewed by millions of people across the country every day as part of local news television shows. Joe (never “Mr. Podesta”) was a special boss to his employees and was proud to see their work and personal successes.

Joe and Joan moved to Florida in retirement. Joe was a man of faith, a devoted family man and was known for his generosity.

Joe is predeceased by his parents Louis and Anna Podesta, his sister Rachel Chiverton and her husband Sidney; and his sister-in-law Alice Kerr.

Joe is survived by his loving wife of 60 years Joan Podesta (Certosimo); his children Joseph Podesta, Jr. and John Podesta and his wife Lauren; his beloved grandchildren Taryn, Joseph III (Trip), John Jr. (Jack) and Luke; his nephew Michael Chiverton and wife Gina, his niece Gina Maher and her husband Roger; his sister-in-law Gerry Nelan and her husband Eddie; his brother-in-law Arthur Certosimo and his wife Beth; his brother-in-law Robert Kerr; and many other nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

A memorial gathering will be held on Monday, July 8^th from 4:00-8:00 PM at the Holmdel Funeral Home, 26 South Holmdel Rd, Holmdel, NJ 07733. A Mass will be offered at 10:30 am on Tuesday, July 9^th at St. Catharine’s RC Church, 108 Middletown Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association https://www.alz.org/get-involved-now/other_ways_to_give