Joseph F. Michenfelder

Michenfelder, Joseph F.

Joseph F. Michenfelder died peacefully at his home in Bloomfield, Conn., July 4, 2020. Born in St. Louis in 1929, he was the third of five children of the late Ruth and Albert Michenfelder. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Laurine Glynn Michenfelder; his sister, Mary Phelan of St. Louis; his brother-in-law, John Glynn of Hartford, Conn.; his sister-in-law, Monica Michenfelder of Lake City, Minn.; and is remembered with deep affection by his 28 nieces and nephews and their children, to whom he was a devoted uncle.

Mr. Michenfelder was a communications and public affairs specialist. He held two masters degrees from New York University and was a graduate (1958) of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. In 1970, Mr. Michenfelder joined the firm of Napolitan Associates LLC, of which he later became president and CEO. The New York-based firm specialized in political counseling, strategic planning and communications for governments nationally and internationally. Over a 50-year period, the firm provided counseling to heads of state in France, Venezuela, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic. In the United States, it assisted the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey, Bill Bradley and Howard Dean. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Michenfelder was director of international communications for the Maryknoll Fathers, a Roman Catholic mission-sending society headquartered in Ossining, N.Y. From 1962 to 1968, he worked in Peru, where he founded and directed Noticias Aliadas, a Lima-based continental news and documentation service funded by the Vatican and served as a pro bono adviser to regional organizations including UNICEF, UNESCO and WHO, among others. Beginning in1982, Mr. Michenfelder also served as president and treasurer of IDOC/North America Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational institution specializing in international programming, information exchange, documentary films and publishing projects related to public policy issues focused on human renewal. In 1997, IDOC partnered with Michael Spett, a son of Holocaust survivors, to create The Yellow Star Project, whose goal was to help stem the resurgence of anti-Semitism and challenge Holocaust revisionism in the United States. In 2005, IDOC and the The Yellow Star Project teamed with Fordham University Press to co-publish the first American edition of Gerhard Schoenberner's Holocaust classic, 'The Yellow Star.'

Mr. Michenfelder was preceded in death by two brothers, Albert Michenfelder Jr. of St. Louis and John Michenfelder M.D. of Oronoco, Minn.; and a sister, Ann Marita Woodruff of St. Louis.

A private celebration of life will take place at a later date. Donations may be made in Mr. Michenfelder's memory to St. Joseph's Indian School, P.O. Box 300, Chamberlain, SD 57325-0300.