Joseph H. Kerner June 7, 1921 to March 26, 2025
The Early Years Joe was born in the Bronx, New York, on June 7th, 1921 to parents Morton and Celia Kerner, and older brother George. In 1937, he graduated high school at the age of 16, with a 90 grade point average and an IQ of 148. He attended City College of New York for two years, majoring in Science. He switched to night classes, so he could get a day job to pay for tuition. A dealer of the Ross Company hired him, specializing in lab and optical instruments. After 2-½ years he left to work for Optics, Inc., who produced the Norden Bombsight for the Air Force, and binoculars for the Army and Navy via defense contracts.
The War Years In March, 1943, two years into World War II, Joe resigned his job and joined the Army. He was sent to Virginia for infantry training as a field medic. Here, he qualified for advanced medical training in Patient Care and Clinical Methods. He was then shipped to Massachusetts to equip and staff a 2500 bed hospital. As the sole applicant to assemble the EKG clinic, it became his, assisting the MD Cardiologist Captain. To serve his patients, he also provided ambulance and hospital railroad transportation duty as needed. Joe was promoted to Corporal and Sergeant, and honorably discharged to veteran status in May, 1946.
Career 1940s- 1950s Joe was hired as an assistant sales manager to Milton Auster in a utensil company. Milton mentored him in Marketing and Sales methods. The company was not growing, so Milton left the company and took Joe with him. They formed a partnership to sell to the radio parts industry. They set up sales groups nationally using commissioned sales reps with each having responsibility for one or more state territories. Joe did the field sales work in his home state of New York, as well as New Jersey and New England. Milton left for a job as a distributor of TV sets in Seattle. Joe decided to stay and represent a pair of surplus companies plus a small manufacturer of TV accessories called TV Development. The following year, he joined a small new company called Blonder-Tongue as a Sales Manager. They manufactured their invention of a broad-band TV amplifier which had limited distribution and low sales. B-T was also developing additional products for TV signal reception. That provided Joe with content for press releases, publicity, and additional representation. He now had reps in all sales territories and brought the company to its first million dollars in sales. The products began to be used in homes and community antenna systems. He helped the company to sell thousands of UHF converters as channels were added. At the invitation of the Federal Communications Commission, Joe went to Washington DC to testify on UHF vs Cable Pay TV.
Career 1960s- 1980s Joe left Blonder-Tongue and went on to form his own company, Kerner Associates Marketing Consultants. He provided marketing services for three clients and held a paid position as executive VP for the Electronic Parts Association. He planned and conducted monthly lunch meetings plus an annual trade show held in Chicago. With west coast manufacturers growing and developing printed circuits and digital science, Joe urged the group and prevailed in moving the annual trade show to Las Vegas. It became the Consumer Electronics Show which still operates today. As the workplace changed, Joe decided to take a job as Marketing Director with Jerrold Electronics in Philadelphia and he relocated to Cherry Hill, NJ. His job was eliminated two years later when the company was bought out by General Instruments. He briefly sold advertising during the day for a local newspaper chain and sold home improvement services in the evenings. After two years, he relocated back to New York to be near his family and children. He briefly lived with his brother, George, on Long Island, and landed a job with a home improvement company. During this time, he met and married his wife, Esther, and they relocated to Plainview, Long Island. Joe answered an ad from a small communications dealer with 4 employees called Long Island Sound. They specialized in amplifiers, paging, and intercom systems, and he got hired as a salesman for the telephone division. During this time, the Bell System (AT&T) was ordered to divest its monopoly, and it became legal to compete and sell telephone systems. On his first day, Joe sold a $1400 telephone sound system to a GM dealer and decided this was to be his career. As sales grew, he expanded the sales force to 8 people. He trained them to offer businesses a free analysis of their phone bill and provide customized phone equipment sales and leasing packages. The company ran for 14 multi-million dollar sales years before it was sold in 1987 as Joe turned 66 and he decided to retire.
Personal Joe has been living in Country Meadows Retirement Communities in Forks Township, Pennsylvania. He has three children: Andrea, Richard, and Joseph, Jr. (and wife Sandra); three grandchildren: Seth Kerner (and wife Ellari), Elizabeth Pensack (and husband James), and Kelly Freedman; and a great-grandchild: Grant Kerner.
Services are private with interment in the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery. Offer online condolences at www.AshtonFuneralHome.com.
