Joseph Frank Slate

Joe was born on Jan. 19, 1928 in Hollidays Cove, West Virginia to Angela Palumbo and Frank Slate. His beloved siblings were Rose Slate, Lucille Armstrong, Dorothy Krukowski and Mary Sheridan. They and their spouses pre-deceased him. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, her siblings, Judy Murphy, Linda Kirk, John Griffin and Steve Griffin. Many loved nieces and nephews on both sides of the family survive.

Joe was a U. S. Marine Air Corps veteran (1946-1948), a graduate of the University of Washington (1951) where he was a stringer for the Seattle Times and after graduation a reporter for that newspaper. In 1953, he was hired by Foreign Broadcast Information Service as an editor in Washington DC and in Tokyo. He married Patricia Griffin on Sept. 11, 1954 in Teutopolis, Ill. After four years with FBIS he left to study at the Yale School of Art (1958-1962) where he earned a degree in painting. He began his teaching career at Kenyon College, where he taught for over 27 years, building its major fine arts program.

While at Kenyon, Joe also pursued his writing, penning two short stories for The New Yorker magazine in 1962 and 1964. The stories were inspired and semi-biographical about his elder sister, Rose, an invalid who died at the age of 17.

In the early 1990’s, Joe retired from Kenyon College and moved to Washington DC where he pursued a second career as an author of children’s’ books. The Miss Bindergarten series, about a border collie who teaches kindergarten, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, have twice appeared on Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Times best seller lists. The books have never been out of print and have sold over a million copies.

Funeral services for Mr. Slate will be Saturday January 25, 2020 at Christ the King Catholic Church on Belmont Ave. in Nashville, Tn. Visitation is at 1 P.M. and funeral mass at 1:45 P.M. Central Time.

Donations may be made to:

Abe’s Garden Development

115 Woodmont Blvd.

Nashville, Tn. 37204

Or to

Mount Grace Convent

1438 East Warne Ave.

P. O. Box 16459

St. Louis, Mo 63125-0459