Joe Siff

1947 - 2023

Joe Siff
11/16/1947 - 07/11/2023
Joseph Trent Siff died July 11, 2023, in Los Angeles, California, due to health complications. He was born November 16, 1947, in Akron, Ohio, the son of Alvin Stanley and Iris Gene Siff. He was predeceased by his parents.
The Siff family moved from Akron to Houston, Texas, when Joe and his twin brother Ted were six months old. From the beginning they were each other's biggest supporters and good-natured competitors. They ran against each other for president of their sixth-grade class but lost to a third candidate. Joe was an Eagle Scout. And, recovering from this early defeat, as a proud member of the first class to attend all four years at Memorial High, he was a multi-year class officer as well as a champion orator and debater. He excelled at almost everything he did.
Joe was a huge Houston Colt 45's/Astros fan. In 1962, the team's inaugural season, Joe worked as a press box runner, assisting sports writers, announcers, and scoreboard keepers during home games. In 1965 when the Colt 45's became the Astros Joe continued as a press box runner and added Astrodome tour guide to his resume. He was proud to have helped several fellow members of the Memorial High speech and drama teams get summer jobs as tour guides and ushers.
After completing his freshman year at Lafayette College, he finished college at Rice University, studying architecture. But the political bug bit him early and hard. In 1968 he was part of the campaign team to elect John Hill governor of Texas. In 1970 he was elected president of the Associate Student Chapters of the American Institute of Architecture (AIA). In that role he sat on the AIA national board, traveled to architecture programs throughout the country and testified before Congress. In 1972 Joe was part of a small group which helped John Hill become Texas Attorney General while also helping Sissy Farenthold in her campaign for governor. He was also on the advance team for Sargent Shriver's Vice-Presidential campaign. All this campaign work resulted in Joe becoming an assistant to Boston Mayor Kevin White.
He was also a precinct election worker until immediately before his health problems, as well as a loyal member of the Texas Democratic Party.
At the completion of his work for Mayor White Joe returned to Houston where he started his career as a financial advisor, and quickly became a senior vice president at Prudential Bache Securities and then Lehman Brothers. In the early 1980's Joe married Bonnie Hickerson. This marriage was blessed with the births of Iris Trent Siff and then Jordan Benjamin Siff.
Joe's personality was infectious. He maintained relationships and fostered friendships, and tried to help friends achieve their goals. So, it was a natural transition when in the 1990's he created his firm, Access Strategies, to connect people and their ideas to the capital or other resources they needed. This talent, matched with his wide-ranging network resulted in projects involving real estate, art, book, and live performance production and so much more. His multi-decade representation of artist David Adickes is one example of his skills.
Joe was a great storyteller and had an unceasing curiosity about the world. He loved his family, conversation, politics, architecture and design, and travel. He was a kind and supportive father, brother and friend who was always eager to keep up with everyone's activities, lives, and opinions.
Joe is survived by his two children, Iris and Jordan and their mother, Bonnie; his twin brother Ted Siff (Janelle Buchanan) of Austin, Texas, his nieces, Leah Siff of Seattle, Washington, and Ava Siff of Austin, Texas; and his cousins, Marilyn Eisenberg (Al) of Houston, Johanne Shepley Siff (Robin Gould) of New York City, John Siff (Joan Leyden) of Chicago, Illinois, Barbara (Mark) O'Brien of Libertyville, Illinois, and Laura Siff Reichert (Doug) of Avalon, New Jersey.
A memorial service will be held on Thursday, August 24, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. at Temple Emanu El, 1500 Sunset Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77005. There will be a reception at the Temple immediately following the service. The family requests that those wishing to make a memorial donation in Joe's name do so to The Holocaust Museum of Houston, 5401 Caroline, Houston, Texas 77004 or choose an organization and donate time, talent and/or funds in Joe's honor.