Joan Oringer

September 4, 1935 – January 10, 2026

Joan Oringer, 90, of Paramus, NJ, passed away peacefully on January 10, 2026 at home with her family by her side.

She was born in New York City on September 4, 1935 to Max and Eleisa Fox. Joan grew up as the eldest of three sisters (Carol Fox Prescott and Susan Weiss) on the Upper West Side. Throughout Joan’s early years, she was exposed to all the greatness the city had to offer from museums and music to movies and the NY Yankees, with a family upbringing that inspired her passion and love for the arts, reading and turtles. Leaving the city for the farmlands of Connecticut, Joan graduated from Norwalk High School and went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut, where up until her passing, Joan was a lifelong supporter of the Huskies and more recently, their iconic women’s basketball team.

On July 5, 1959, Joan married the handsome and charming Irwin Oringer of North Bergen, NJ and they were married for 66 years. Together they raised four children in Paramus (Sandi Galle, Barrie Oringer, Kenneth Oringer, Mitchell Oringer) in one of the most idyllic neighborhoods one could imagine.

Joan began her professional career as an early childhood teacher before she took on the lifelong role as the best mom in the world. She dedicated her entire life to her love of family, whether it was her kids, grandkids, husband, sisters or her many, many cousins, nieces and nephews.

The highlight of Joan’s working years was as the Manager of the New England Vacation Center where she met people from all over the world in her Rockefeller Center office providing free tourism information to those traveling to New England.

Her career at the Vacation Center combined Joan’s love of travel and New England with helping others, which was another one of Joan’s most admirable attributes. Joan’s passion for travel took her throughout the United States as well as Morocco, Italy, Spain, England, Ireland, Canada and Mexico just to name a few of her favorites.

Joan’s other professional accomplishments included teaching reading skills to challenged students, a paralegal assistant, a tourism promoter at The World Trade Center and more.

A woman who was well-ahead of her time in many ways, Joan was a huge activist for a plethora of different organizations and causes throughout her entire life from door-to-door campaigning to volunteering at Planned Parenthood; from advocating for women’s rights, civil rights, human rights and the LGBTQ community to supporting Jewish causes, PBS, breast cancer awareness, autism, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s,

Joan was fiercely competitive whether sharing her opinions on anything and everything or playing thousands of games of Sorry with her children and grandchildren. She had the sharpest wit, a love for sarcasm and a great sense of humor. She was the most loyal friend having best friends for more than 70 years and Joan never met a person who she didn’t immediately befriend. She was a voracious reader, a TV and movie aficionado, a museum enthusiast, an art lover, a classical music guru and a fanatic lover of Willie Nelson and The Beatles, a potterer, a gourmet foodie – enjoying caviar and Uni as well as Hiram’s and Gray’s Papaya hot dogs – and she proudly completed the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle each week.

Above and beyond everything, Joan lived each day with a zest for life and a family-first attitude. She dedicated her entire life to connecting with people and sharing the strength of family throughout her lifetime. Whether it was long lost cousins or newly born grandchildren, Joan would sit and story tell about her family and its importance in shaping her life.

Always a fighter, Joan survived breast cancer, CML and heart disease, even participating in medical studies to help future women with breast cancer research. Joan’s last two years were spent in FL, but her heart was always in New York and New Jersey.

Joan is survived by her husband Irwin Oringer, children Sandi Galle and fiancé Jay Dennis, Barrie Oringer, Ken Oringer and wife Celine, Mitch Oringer and wife Susan, grandchildren Matthew, John, Verveine, and Luca, sister Carol Fox Prescott, and grand-pets Maple, Bruno, Axel and Pepper. Joan was pre-deceased by sister Susan Weiss.

A funeral service will be held on Sunday, January 18, 11:30 AM at Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries in Paramus at The Chapel. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of Joan’s favorite organizations – the New York Botanical Garden or the Metropolitan Museum of Art.