Joe served as president of the Woodstock Rotary and was a member of the board of directors and a shareholder of the Woodstock Country Club. He was recognized as Woodstock’s Citizen of the Year in 1984 by the Rotary and Lions Clubs.
He received the PTA’s Jenkins Memorial Award in 1958. In presenting the award, Woodstock School Principal Walter Van Wagnen said “Joe has his own guidance department and that no one in the township will ever know all that Joe has done…only the kids themselves know what he has really done on their behalf.”
Those kids got the benefit of such activities as the annual Woodstock Easter Egg Hunt, of which Joe was the founder and sponsor for nearly 50 years, from 1947 to 1994. He served on the Woodstock Recreation Committee for more than 25 years, organizing ice skating, hay rides, sleigh rides, dances, basketball and bowling events.
There’s more. He was president of the Woodstock Little League, a member of the Fire Company, Christmas Eve committee, a Woodstock Riding Club supporter, a member of the Woodstock Republican Committee and was a Library Fair concessionaire.
He was also known for his automobile collection.
“He collected a lot of antique cars,” says Joe Jr. “I think he has a Model T Ford now. He bought and sold and kept them for years, had about 35 of them. His prized possession was a 1941 custom build Packard, there were only 12 made, Clark Gable owned one. He bought one, paid about $4000 for it in the late 1940s. He hung on to that one until the early 1990s and made a pretty good profit.”
And he was a great sports fan, particularly a New York Yankee fan.
“We took him down to the new Yankee Stadium recently, and a guy from the Yankees came to meet him. When he was eight years old he attended the opening of the old Yankee Stadium, in 1923. He saw Lou Gehrig. He took me and we saw Mantle and Maris hit back to back homeruns. I never heard a crowd yell that loud. In 1957 when the Braves won the World Series, they draped the store on Tinker Street in black.”
Joe was a member and past president of Lake St. Patrick (Canada) Fish and Game Club from 1955 until the present. “He loved that fishing club. He took half the town there.”
Surviving are his wife, Barbara Shultis Forno; a son, Joseph Forno of Bearsville; two daughters, Kathryn Pietrowicz of Saugerties and Jennifer Vogel of Wittenberg; five grandchildren, Michael and An Pietrowicz, Amy Cocorikis, Eric and Jason Vogel; seven great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by three sisters and two brothers.
Private services are under the direction of Lasher Funeral Home. Burial will be in Woodstock Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his name are suggested to Woodstock Rescue Squad, PO Box 222, Woodstock, NY 12498.
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