Joel Allen Reisman

1941 - 2025

Joel Allen Reisman, age 84, passed away peacefully on October 1, 2025.

Born in St. Louis on June 24, 1941, Joel moved with his parents to Hughes, Arkansas at the age of two, soon to enjoy a country boyhood spent riding bikes and enjoying small-town freedom.

His family (which grew in time to include brothers Charlie, Wayne and Robb) moved to Memphis when he was 12. Joel quickly adjusted to life in the city, joining Temple Israel and AZA fraternity, and making life-long friends. He graduated from Central High School in 1959, then was off to the University of Tennessee Knoxville. His sights already set on becoming a psychiatrist, he returned to Memphis and graduated from UT Medical School in 1964.

Joel proudly served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1974, including a tour as medical officer for a destroyer division during the Vietnam conflict. He completed a residency in psychiatry at University of Oregon Medical School. After his training, Joel once again returned to Memphis, this time to stay.

In addition to establishing a busy private practice, he served as the first medical director at Lakeside Hospital, helped create an innovative mental health crisis stabilization unit for Memphis and Shelby County, and led a hospital-based eating disorders unit. Joel later became a well-respected forensic psychiatrist, testifying in many federal and state cases in the Mid-South for over 30 years. Joel was honored to be a Fellow of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Deeply committed to educating subsequent generations of psychiatrists, he served as a volunteer Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, UTCHS. And Joel loved volunteering at the Church Health Center, seeing patients and overseeing other mental health professionals, which he did for over a decade.

Beyond his professional achievements, Joel was an avid tennis player and a lifelong lover of travel and history. He took up adult soccer at 40 and somehow survived that without major injury. He also played a mean game of spoons. Even as his health declined, Joel enjoyed going to the movies and sitting at Shelby Farms looking out at the lake, reading. Known for his dry wit, a favorite anecdote concerned the day he and Anne selected plots at Elmwood Cemetery. Upon being told the plots were reasonably priced but rather near the railroad tracks, Joel responded "I don't think the noise is going to bother me."

Joel is survived by his loving wife, Anne Mathes; his children, Mark Lan Reisman (Sherry), Nicole Joell Reisman, and Charles Rashad Reisman (Angel), three grandsons, his brother, Robb Reisman (Jan), his cousin Laurel Reisman, numerous other cousins, nieces and nephews, and lifelong friend Gordon Gruen. He was preceded in death by his parents, Francis Land and Mervin Reisman, his brothers, Wayne and Charlie, and by his former wife and mother to Mark and Nicole, Cecile Weiss Reisman.

A private burial will be held at Elmwood Cemetery, with a service to follow on October 4, 2025 at First Congregational Church at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Joel's memory to the Church Health Center or the Memphis & Shelby County Humane Society.