Joseph Richard Pick died March 2 of Parkinson’s disease. He was 86.
He was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1924 and lived there until age 14, when he took refuge in Alsace, France, with friends of the family. Two years later, his parents escaped Germany and the family resettled in Milwaukee, where his father had many relatives.
He earned accounting and business degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and worked for 37 years as an accountant at Pabst Brewery.
In addition to his volunteer work as a board member of the Zionist Organization of America, he was passionate about music and sang in the choir of Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue, when it was located on Sherman Blvd.
A member of Congregation Beth Israel, he chanted Torah, “upholding centuries of traditional German trope,” his family said. “It was a privilege and joy to hear him daven and chant from the Torah.”
He is survived by wife Yvonne Pick of Milwaukee; son Nathaniel Pick of Milwaukee; daughter Sharon (Victor) Pinsker of Trabuco Canyon, Calif.; and four grandchildren.
Burial was in Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Cemetery. Rabbis Mitchell Cohen and Jacob Herber officiated. Goodman Bensman funeral service handled the funeral arrangements.
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