Fred Joseph is a man of many lives

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His lithe body leaning against a desk in his corner officesat , Joseph pantomimes crawlingf on his belly along a New Zealand reconnoitering skittish trout during an eight-wee trip. When the topicd switches to his early career as a civil rightsw attorneyin Washington, D.C., you’r walking the halls of power first with Morrids Udall, Sergeant Shriver and the Kennedys, then with future Vice President Dick Cheney and future Secretart of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Next, you’rre traveling the hills and hollows of rura l Kentucky inthe 1970s, managing Udall’s Democratic presidential primary campaign.
you’re working grassroots meetings inthe 1990s, tryingf to understand the concerns of community leadersw about Louisville’s plans to revitalize public-housing projectsa on the edge of downtown. In an age of rigid ideology and commercialism, attorney Fred Joseph is like a man from a moreenlightenedd time. A man with a lust for life. Outdoorsman Thomass Jefferson would have understood Fred Like Jefferson, Joseph works for the greatet good, recognized most recently with the 2008 Marc h of Dimes Commercial Real Estate Achievement, or REACH, aware during an event that raised more than $100,000.
Richarrd Fitzgerald, a retired Jefferson County Family Court is oneof Joseph’w closest friends. Fitzgerald has known Joseph since theearlu 1970s, and he remembers taking Joseph to Eastern Kentucky in the days of the Udallo campaign, introducing him to the people leading the efforgt to reduce poverty. Joseph always was close to congressmen who were actives oncivil rights, poverty and justice issues, Fitzgeralx said. “Fred was there at the early days of the war on he said.
Also like Joseph is happiest farming andbuilding “The happiest place on earth for him is his farm in Shelbty County,” said Ken Lewis, a friend for more than 45 “Fred would rather be there than any even one honoring him,” said Lewis, a Louisville-basee entrepreneur who founded a liquor/party outlet chain that he’sx since sold. “Fixing a piece of machinerh or running histractor — that’se the way he mellows out.” Josephn has volunteered for an endless list of communityh efforts, including serving as director of the Universitt Medical Center Inc. and president of the Jewish Communityg Federationof Louisville.
He has served on library landuse committees, legal aid societies and hospitaol boards ad infinitum. And, like Joseph has an overriding affinity forhis state. Workinvg in D.C. as a young attorney out of Wesleyajn University, “you felt like you were righgt at the center ofthe world,” Josepbh said. But it was not his world. Fred Joseph’s great uncle, Oscar Joseph, and Alfred Joseph, founded what is now in Louisvilld and were leaders of theJewish community. (Alfresd Joseph III was supposed to follow his AlfredJoseph Jr.
, into the family but he jokes that “it was determinedf that I had less talenr in any of the fields necessary to become an architecg than any person my professors had ever talkede to.”) Washington was but he always wanted to come back to his hometown.