Joseph A. Barsin

Joseph A. Barsin

Joseph A. Barsin, 99, formerly of Lehigh Acres as a winter time resident, died Nov. 11, 2008 at the Peninsula Hospital in Rockaway Point, N.Y. Barsin was a retired New York City school teacher, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officer, and a long-time member of the Catholic Club.

Born in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., on Aug. 15, 1909, he attended Brooklyn Prep and graduated from Villanova University in 1932. He played basketball at Villanova and later excelled at tennis, golf, bowling and most recently, bocce at Rockaway Point, N.Y.

He was married to the late Florence (Kojan), and they lived in the Midwood section with their two children, Margaret (Peggy Ann) and Joseph (Jay) Barsin.

Barsin’s first career as a police sergeant for the Port Authority involved him in the creation and organization of Idlewild Airport (Now JFK). Later, he attended the Bernard Baruch School (CUNY) and earned a master’s degree in criminal psychology. In 1962, he retired from that line of work and became a high school teacher.

Once retired in the early 1970s, Barsin and his wife would split the year between Rockaway Point, N.Y., and Lehigh Acres. His family said that he loved to swim but only when the water temperature was his age or higher.

In Lehigh Acres, he volunteered to help senior citizens prepare income tax returns and took up the study of art when he was 95. He also mastered the computer and Microsoft Word at 92, his family said. He was a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity at age 90 and continued to help with their projects for several years.

Barsin is survived by his daughter, Peggy Ann Fogarty; and son, Jay Barsin, and daughter-in-law, Carol. He is also survived by six grandchildren, Tom, Joanne and Helena Fogarty, Carolyn Hyland, and Scott and Joe Barsin III, and eight great grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian burial was held at St. Thomas Moore Recreation Center at Breezy Point in New York on Nov. 15.

A memorial service for Barsin’s Florida friends will be held at Lee Memorial Park, just outside Lehigh Acres. Friends may call at the funeral home on Tuesday Jan. 6, 2009 from 10 to 11 a.m. Interment will be at Lee Memorial Park at 11:20 a.m.

A reception will be held for his Florida friends at Westminster Country Club at noon.

The family suggests that as a tribute to the memory of Barsin, that contributions be made to the Villanova University Alumni Association or to St. Raphael Catholic Church in Lehigh Acres.