Joseph M. Hickey Jr.

Joseph (Joe) Martin Hickey, Jr. was born December 2, 1953 and passed away August 25, 2025 at the age of 71.

He is survived by his loving wife of 43 years, Cathy, his children Jessica Hathorn (Sean), Peter Griffin (Nicole) and Matthew Hickey, and his grandchildren Cole, Madeline and Elle, and his brothers Kevin Hickey (Meg) and Tom Hickey (Bernadette). Nothing brought Joe more happiness in life than his family. He was inseparable from the love of his life Cathy, and doted on his kids and grandkids. He spent most of his adult life in the Mahopac community and was very involved in the Putnam and Westchester communities.

Joe was born in Long Island before moving to Yorktown Heights and attending John F. Kennedy High School. He attended Niagara University where he pitched for their baseball team and served as student body president for four years. After using the campaign slogan "Put a Hickey on the student body", he utilized his student government position to help book musical acts, including then up-and-comer Bruce Springsteen, to perform on campus.

After graduating college in 1976, he joined the family business working at IBM, where both his parents, Joseph and Rita Hickey, worked. He stayed with IBM for 44 years, retiring in 2020. He absolutely treasured his colleagues around the world and spoke to them and about them often. It wasn't uncommon for Joe to be on calls at all hours of the day talking to his team in Japan, Australia, Italy, France or Spain.

Joe was also a pillar of the local community, where he was extensively involved in sports for over 60 years as a player, coach, referee and umpire. Including basketball, baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball games, it's estimated he was part of over 10,000 matches in his lifetime. In the second half of his athletic career, he was very passionate about officiating and had so many close friendships with athletes across the region.

There will be a public viewing on Thursday, August 28th, from 4:00-8:00 PM at Joseph J. Smith Funeral Home at 692 US-6, Mahopac, NY 10541.

There will be a Celebratory Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church, 221 E. Lake Blvd., Mahopac, NY 10541 on Friday, August 29th at 10:00 AM.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking friends of Joe to make a donation at the Joseph and Cathy Hickey Charitable Fund that will support causes and organizations in the community that Joe and Cathy were involved with at www.bit.ly/HickeyFund