Joseph Reed Ingersoll of Chestnut Hill

Joseph Reed Ingersoll, a longtime Chestnut Hill resident, died June 22 in Pennsylvania Hospital, following a short admittance. He was 77. Joe grew up in Penllyn, Montgomery County, and attended Chestnut Hill Academy before graduating from St. Paul’s School, in Concord, NH where he captained the boxing team. He went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was president of the Zeta Psi Fraternity and had enrolled in the Marine Corps PLC officers program. He was later honorably discharged following a civilian injury. Joe also earned an MBA degree at Penn’s Wharton School. A business career in retailing, including department store management, took him to executive positions in Philadelphia, Dallas, and San Francisco, as well as Hawaii and Japan, with Federated Stores, Duty Free Shops and others. He was also a sales executive for Concept Systems, a computer firm that developed systems for retail chain store operations.

Upon retirement, Joe wore many hats and volunteered many hours at Pennypack Farm in Horsham, where his carpentry and gardening talents, as well as his extraordinary fundraising skills, contributed to the development a Community Support Agriculture -- CSA -- program to provide a variety of home-grown organic produce to the community. He also helped start this food coop concept at The Highlands, in Fort Washington, where he served on the board of directors.

But perhaps Joe’s most memorable project was a team effort with his wife, Gretchen, and their trained therapy dogs -black and yellow labs -making weekly visits to Pennsylvania Hospital to share time with patients and staff. For the past 12 years, countless patients have had spirits uplifted by visits to their bedsides from Nicholas, Anastasia, Elvira, and Leonard, their new four-footed friends.

In addition to his wife, Gretchen, Joe is survived by sons, Reed and Richard; a brother, Bob; and eight first cousins. Joe and his former wife, the late Patricia Royce, were the parents of Reed and Richard. Services will be private. Contributions in Joe’s memory may be made to Pennypack Farm, care of The Joe Ingersoll Infrastructure Fund, 685 Mann Road, Horsham, PA 19044, or The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, 909 N. Washington St., Suite 400, Alexandria, VA 22314.