Joseph Max Rosenblatt

Joseph Max Rosenblatt, 80, passed away Saturday, June 6, 2026 in Oak Park, Illinois.  He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Gay Miller, four daughters, Audrey Rosenblatt (Ben Bottorff), Ivana Rosenblatt (Dave Gohlke), Heather Rosenblatt (Jon Hood), and Rebecca Rosenblatt, and six grandchildren, Isaac, Max, Milo, Olivia, Zach, and Theo. He was a mathematician who was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Joe was born March 4, 1946, in New York to Bill and Sylvia Rosenblatt.  He moved as a child to the west coast, growing up in Alhambra, California. As an only child, he loved visiting with his Aunts Frieda and Belle and his cousins Don, Paul, Ellen and Bruce. His mathematical interests were piqued at a young age, ultimately deciding a math career because mathematics asked the most interesting questions.  He earned a bachelor's degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon before graduating with a Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Washington. He included a Master’s degree on his CV for 40 years as well only to find there was no record of the paperwork, a fact much heckled by his daughters, all of whom earned Master’s degrees. 

In 1974, Joe started as a professor at Ohio State University, staying there for twenty years.  At OSU, Joe met the love of his life, Gay Miller, and together they had four lovely daughters, a perfect, captive audience for his winding shaggy dog stories including daring “Super Heroes,” tales of “Lassie”, and “Skip, Hip, and Hop” pronghorn antelopes.  Joe and Gay both joined the faculty at UIUC in 1994, where Joe taught as professor and served two periods as department chair.  He retired from UIUC in 2014.  During his career, he also worked for the government in both administrative and research roles.  In spite of his official retirement, this mathematician never truly stopped working, continuing to communicate with collaborators, write and revise publications, and guide the next generation of researchers.  He enjoyed sharing his findings with the broader research community. 

Spending most of his career in academia, education was essential to Joe.  Fourteen students earned their doctorates under his tutelage and he supervised five postdoctoral researchers and numerous undergraduate students.  He was particularly proud that each of his daughters earned Ph.D.’s of their own in Physics (OSU), Mathematics (OSU), Art History (OSU), and Nursing (Rush), and he and his wife are establishing Ohio State University graduate support in their honor.

Joe loved camping with Gay, starting with tents and pop-up campers, and frequently traveling in an RV to different campgrounds around the East Coast in his retirement.  He enjoyed both challenging intellectual puzzles and guilty pleasures such as Calvin and Hobbes, schlocky detective shows, and reading near the wood-burning stove.  Joe liked being active, playing squash and racquetball while younger, and gardening and ballroom dancing with his wife for the last 25 years of his life. 

Private services were held for family with the intention of a public memorial service in the future. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be sent to The Ohio State University Foundation.

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