Joseph Saunders

1926 - 2018

Joseph (Joe) Saunders (1926 - 2018) Joe Saunders, born in New York City, June 1, 1926, passed away on July 2, 2018 at the Miami VA Hospital. A long-time resident of Coral Gables, he first came to Miami for training after joining the Navy in June 1943. As a Carpenter's Mate third class in the Seabees, he served in the Pacific theatre during WWII and was stationed in Iwo Jima. After he left the Navy in 1947, he returned to Miami and attended the University of Miami, where he graduated with a Bachelor in Business Administration in 1954. One of his early jobs was at the Miami Herald. As a volunteer for the Coral Gables Youth center he served as athletic director coaching boys baseball, and later served as assistant director. After the Herald, he went on to start his own advertising agency with his partner Sam Bell. Always an avid lover of restaurants and dining, from 1972-1974 he took a hiatus from the advertising business to open his own restaurant, the Sausalito, a bar and nightclub on Commodore Plaza in Coconut Grove. In 1975, he reopened Bell & Saunders Advertising and had a variety of clients including Miami Jai-Alai, Gulfstream race track, Warner Bros., U.S. Senator Claude Pepper, and Honda motorcycles. His longest term client was Equitrac Corporation, which started as a small firm in Coral Gables and grew to be a public traded company on the NASDAQ exchange. He worked with Equitrac from 1983-2003 and long after his retirement remained close friends with one of the founders. Joe will be deeply missed by his surviving sons Todd and Brett and his many friends.