Joseph Wesley Pickle Jr.

1935 - 2025

Pickle, Jr.
Joseph Wesley
Pickle, Jr.
April 8, 1935
May 4, 2025

Native Coloradan, professor, minister, mentor, friend, husband and father, Joseph W. Pickle, Jr. passed away at age 90 on May 4 after a short illness. Joe was born in Denver in 1935 to Joseph W. Pickle and Wilhelmina "Billie" E. Pickle. He grew up in Denver with his younger brother Charles Dewitt, survived a lengthy hospital stay in 5th grade, and rode the streetcar to the First Baptist Church, where he attended Sunday school, worked odd jobs and became active in the Baptist Youth Fellowship. The war years left him with a lifelong fondness for Spam.
In 1953, Joe won a college scholarship from the American Baptist Convention to attend Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he graduated with honors in philosophy, honed his belief in the positive power of a liberal arts education, and met the love of his life, Judith A. Siebert. Carleton also broadened Joe's horizons and ambitions. In 1956, he traveled to Germany as the Baptist delegate to the World Student Christian Federation. This sparked his lifelong commitment to fostering connection across cultures and ecumenical unity.
Following graduation from Carleton College in 1957, Joe received a Danforth Fellowship and began graduate studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago. Joe and Judy married in June 1958, and in 1959 they moved to New York City, where Joe interned as an assistant minister at Judson Church and served as the director of the co-ed and interracial Judson Student House. The extended ministry to students focused on social justice, including participating in non-violent protests. This was a formative experience that they remembered all their lives. After returning to Chicago to continue graduate work, Joe and Judy welcomed their first child, David. Shortly thereafter, Joe won a Fulbright scholarship and the young family traveled to Germany, where Joe studied theology at Tubingen, then a hotbed of theological studies, and Judy reconnected with her German relatives.
Connections formed at the University of Chicago shaped the rest of their lives. In 1964 these connections led Joe and his family to Colorado Springs, where Joe began his career as a professor of religion at Colorado College. Joe embraced Colorado College and teaching with a passion. He and Judy welcomed many other new faculty who joined the college in the 1960s and beyond and helped form the faculty community that supported the college for decades.
Joe loved teaching, especially philosophy of religion and the Schleiermacher seminar (he made Iron Cross placards for students who survived the course), as well as religion and the American experience and cross-disciplinary science and religion courses. Joe returned to Tubingen on sabbatical in 1972 (with Judy and all 3 children), and was a visiting scholar at Oxford University in 1985. He also helped establish the campus Amnesty International chapter, served as advisor for the Mellon fellowship candidates, and served on the Colorado State Board of Health.
Later in his career, Joe developed a professional interest in Africa, sparked by the early travels of his youngest son Steven and a long friendship with Solomon Nkiwane (CC '64). In 1989, Joe and Solomon founded a study abroad program in Zimbabwe, which they developed into a full semester program for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM). Joe and Judy went to Africa with students in the summer of 1989 and again in Spring 1991. As faculty director of International Studies at Colorado College, he was instrumental in bringing scholars and students from Africa and around the globe to CC.
Throughout his life, Joe found joy in spending time with his family. He and Judy frequently traveled to visit their children, including a trip to Indonesia to visit their daughter Kathy and conduct a guest lecture at the University of Malang in 1988. He enjoyed singing, reading and seeing plays, and listening to opera. After retiring in 2002, Joe remained active in the community and beyond. Joe was a member of the Colorado Springs Chorale for several years, and he and Judy were members of the Broadmoor Community Church and more recently the First Congregational Church, where Joe was also a member of the choir. They continued to travel extensively in retirement, including across much of Europe, as well as to China, India, Cuba and throughout the U.S., visiting family and friends.
In later years, Alzheimer's rewired many parts of Joe's mind and he forgot many things, including much of the intellectual joy he garnered from scholarly work, but his kindness and his keen interest in connecting with people stayed with him to the end. So too did his deep love for Judy, who preceded him in death in 2023.
Joe is survived and missed by children David, Kathy and Steven, their spouses, and four grandchildren, as well as his brother Charlie, his spouse and their daughter. In addition to Judy, Joe was predeceased by his parents and a network of aunts and uncles who cared for him and fussed over him in his youth. A memorial service will be held at 2 pm on October 4, 2025 at First Congregational Church, 20 E. St. Vrain St, Colorado Springs, CO 80903.