an Important

BY JESSICA YOUNGMAN

Joseph Strasser ’53 B.A. (Hist)/’58 M.P.A./’20 Hon. was just 8 years old when he and his brother arrived in New York aboard a Kindertransport rescue ship with only the clothes on their backs. They had escaped Nazi persecution following the Third Reich’s invasion of their home county, Austria.

Their father, Paul, was not as fortunate. He was sent to a concentration camp.

The boys were taken in by an aunt in Queens and cared for until 1941, when Paul made it to the states and reunited with them following a cross-Pyrenees escape. He carried with him a box containing their mother’s ashes. She had died from illness after seeking refuge in France, he explained, but said little more.

Memories from that time faded like an old photograph, but the pain of losing a parent at such an early age was never far from the surface for Joseph Strasser. What could have turned him inward or festered bitterness instead inspired a life motivated by the pursuit of education, public service and more than anything else, the drive to improve the lives of others.

Joseph Strasser was among the Maxwell School’s most generous supporters, having donated more than $7 million to benefit its students, faculty and schoolwide priorities. He died at age 89 on Sept. 12 following a lengthy illness.

“I can think of no one who better embodied the Maxwell spirit,” said Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Public service was at the core of who Joe Strasser was, as was his desire to use his means to make life better and provide more opportunity for others. He will forever be an important figure in our history. Not only is he among the most charitable donors of all time across all areas of our School, but his professional public service has helped define the discipline and is a quintessential Maxwell story.”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree, Strasser served as a finance officer in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict. He then returned to Maxwell and received a master of public administration.