Joseph A. Laker

Joseph Alphonse Laker, 84, passed away on September 7th, 2025 at Wheeling Hospital, with his loving wife, Meg, by his side.

He was born on March 17th, 1941 to Anna Riegel and Alphonse Laker in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was also raised. Following his graduation from Marian College with a degree in history, he spent two years teaching English conversation in Kyoto, Japan. He returned home to seek advanced degrees at Indiana University and received his Ph. D. in history in 1975. He spent the next 33 years at Wheeling College, which became Wheeling Jesuit University. As a professor, Joe published a number of articles on various aspects of Japanese and world history.

On December 5th, 1987, Joe married Margaret Susan Geroch Laker. The couple resided in Wheeling's Dimmeydale neighborhood.

After retiring from teaching in 2008, Joe wrote a history of Wheeling Jesuit University published by Arcadia in their Campus History Series. He continued to write a variety of articles on Wheeling and West Virginia history for Weelunk, The Upper Ohio Valley Historical Review, the Wheeling Intelligencer, and other entities. He also presented a number of well received history and geography programs at the Ohio County Public Library.

A beloved professor of history, Joe was proud of his teaching and mentoring of students and younger professors at Wheeling College. His students long remembered him as a tough but fair grader, a beer enthusiast, and a formidable scholar also capable of organizing legendary History Department parties.

A member of St. Michael's Parish, Joe attended mass every Sunday at the Chapel of Mary and Joseph at Wheeling University. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation, where he served as president for several years. He loved to travel, read, attend library programs, work in his garden, and walk his beloved dogs, Hastings and Whimsy.

When asked to provide an fo d Memory of Joe, colleague and friend Joe Brumble shared the following.

After retiring from is own history teaching career, Joe's colleague and friend Walter Renn bought an old sailboat. Joe and Meg would often fly to some small airstrip to meet Walt and Joe Brumble, to sail on Walt's boat to the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas and to various points in and around the Florida Keys. The friends would spend a week or so together on Walt's boat, sailing, fishing, snorkeling and in the heat of most days, enjoying an adult beverage, or two. According to Brumble, "Joe was a true landlubber. He was not a swimmer; at best I'd call him an enthusiastic floater. On one trip (to the Dry Tortugas) Joe showed up with a gaudy bathing suit and clashing new t-shirts, apparently a size too small, but imprinted with some provocatively conservative political cartoons or slogans. He'd wear a different shirt each day, solely to provoke political arguments with Walt, and he took immense delight when poking that bear worked so well. I can still see him smiling and chuckling at what he had wrought, all in good nature of course. I also took great delight in watching Joe learn to go overboard in order to paddle around on a reef. He must've been in his early to mid-50s at the time, and remember, he did not swim. Everyone else would already be swimming around and diving down into a coral reef 50 or 100 feet away from our anchored boat. But Joe was still on board; and he had what my father called 'moxie.' I swam back to the boat to find that Joe, swim fins already on his feet, mask and snorkel in place and ready for the water, his torso encase in a large life-vest, and (do I need to say 'awkwardly?') trying to climb down the boat's ladder so that he, too, could see what a reef looks like up close. That was a sight to behold, but it took moxie! Think about it...literally, you're at sea, waves and currents, sharks, barracuda and other 'scary' ocean creatures in the water swimming freely nearby...and you can't even swim! Joe was determined, though, to experience what all the fuss was about. To watch him, ever-so-cautiously, learning to use a mask and snorkel and then to paddle bravely away from the safety of the boat to a place where he could float over and observe a tropical reef and its life forms...that, to me, was the epitome of Joe's adventurous spirit, and I've never forgotten that about his character. I hope you, too, noticed that about him in the other ways he embraced life."

Joe is survived by his wife Margaret Geroch Laker, two step daughters, Elizabeth Bradburn (Paul) and Ellen Marie Bradburn, and siblings John Laker (Roberta), Thomas Laker (Mary Kay), Mark Laker (Elle), Rosina Laker Starks (Steve), Catherine Laker Kropp (Peter), Bernard Laker, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Joe was preceded in death by sisters Mary Ann Laker Burne (Carl) and Agnes Laker Kerr (Clyde).

Visitation will be offered Wednesday, Sept. 10th from 4 pm until time of vigil services at 6 pm at Altmeyer Funeral Home-Elm Grove Chapel, 154 Kruger St. Mass of Christian Burial will be offered Thursday Sept. 11 at 10am, at the Chapel of Mary and Joseph at Wheeling University.

Donations may be made to the charity of the donor's choice.