Why we are called the Joe Mertz Center

This Center for Volunteer Community Service is funded by The Joseph E. Mertz Memorial Educational Foundation, Inc. and named for Joseph Mertz whose love and caring for people started early in his life.  Joe was the youngest of six children.  Even as a teenager he took responsibility for his aging parents, willingly and lovingly caring for them even when his high school friends wanted him to be with them.  Neither his mother nor his father could drive and he would drive them to all their appointments in his own car.

That same caring and helpful spirit extended to his mother-in-law.  At his suggestion, she lived in their home so he could serve her, attend to all her needs and make her later years more comfortable.

He spent many hours in his shop, making things-mostly for other people-he was a true craftsman. He welcomed questions from his or other children and loved to have them around.

When his sister became very ill, Joe asked others to help get her a television.  No one else was willing to help with this project.  So he personally borrowed money and got his sister a TV (his own family didn't even have a TV at the time!) so she could have it for her long road back to health.  In his last years, he got his real estate license and sold numerous homes to older people moving to Florida for retirement.  Many were on a fixed income and he always helped them.  He would often drive them to doctor's appointments and other places.

Joe died at 49.  At the funeral and afterwards there were so many, many people who came to his daughter and told her how he had helped them when they were in need and gave examples of the things he had done for them.

Joe Mertz believed in living his life to help his neighbor, a term he defined as anyone in need.  This Center bears his name in the hope that it will inspire students here to be like him and serve the needs of others.