OBITUARY Joseph Hemela December 7, 1941 – September 19, 2018 Joseph Hemela was born on December 7, 1941 and passed away on September 19, 2018. Send Flowers Show Your Support Share Obituary share to facebook share by email share link Receive Notifications
Joseph Hemela was born in Budapest, Hungary, during the second world war. He was born on December 7, 1941 and was raised in Budapest. After finishing high school, he went to study Chemistry and Physics at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. He met his wife, Katherine, in high school when he was 16 years old. And they got married after finishing their studies in 1968. This coming December would have been their 50th wedding anniversary, on December 23rd. Joseph’s parents, Joseph Hemela Senior and Maria Holzhauser, were very hard working people who gave all their love to their only son. They have two daughters, Katherine and Ingrid, and four grandchildren.
We will always be inspired by Joseph’s courage and his willingness to take risks. He had relentless – even stubborn – optimism. He used this to help him and his wife escape the then-communist country of Hungary in 1980. And he used this strength and courage to remain positive despite his many health problems over the past 10 years. This past month, even though he had gone through difficult medical procedures, he didn’t complain once. We’ll always remember and be inspired by his strength.
Dad was an intellectual. He taught chemistry and physics to medical students in Hungary. He worked at the Central Research Institute for Chemistry and he was a proud member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He gave lectures on Chemistry from 1965 – 1980, until we left Hungary. He had multiple publications in scientific journals, for example he wrote an article on Polycondensation Kinetics in 1976. There were many articles in international chemistry journals that we recently found. Even though he was very sick over the past few months, every evening he was reading at least 1 hour of scientific journals each day to educate himself further.
When we came to the United States, Joseph was able to immediately find a job as a computer engineer and to support the family while Katherine finished her medical exams. He worked as an engineer at a few companies: Bechman, Texas Instruments, Lexar Technologies and Speech Systems. He also started a few companies, like a Medical Practice Administration, organizing psychiatric care for patients in the Ventura area, and a few elderly care homes. He cared about his colleagues very much and was always very proud of his work.
He also taught chemistry and physics to us in High School. He loved learning about math and science, and he loved teaching others – especially his kids and grandkids. Sometimes his scientific explanations went on way too long! 😊 He believed in and always talked about a mathematical construct called the Mikushinski Operator, which we think is related to calculus. Dad believed in the application of this to human behavior. We never fully understood this – I’m sorry Dad! In any case, Joseph believed that education is the most important – it was our top priority when we were little and is the top priority as we raise our kids, too. He was so proud of his daughters and loved to talk about their accomplishments. So many people loved Joseph – his family and many people in the community. He had a wonderful sense of humor, always making jokes and making people laugh. He had a friendly attitude and loved chatting with people, including his doctors, nurses, Weight Watchers, and his gym friends. Even his favorite deli owner, George, when he learned that Joseph passed away, almost started to cry. When Joseph went to his favorite restaurants, the waiters always knew exactly what he wanted and greeted him warmly when he and his wife arrived. For example, Katherine and Joseph liked to go to Ventura Harbor or Santa Barbara many Sundays for lunch, and the waiters knew that he liked his oyster Rockefeller, French onion soup, lobster bisque, with his favorite beer.
We all came to Joseph for advice. Whenever we had to make a decision or think through a problem, he always listened carefully and understood the challenges before giving advice. He was selfless – and he was wise. He helped us think through decisions and feel confident about the decisions we made. We will keep talking with him, even if he’s not right here with us, to help us think about hard decisions in future.
When Joseph was young and healthy, he loved to go to on tropical vacations like Hawaii, Bora Bora, and Fiji. He loved to go snorkeling and would spend hours under water looking at colorful fish. Every Sunday when Katherine and Ingrid were kids, we would go somewhere locally as a family. We went to Santa Barbara, Solvang, Monterey, San Diego, Ventura, Big Sur and Disneyland.
Joseph also enjoyed photography and would take hundreds of photos. He has been taking photographs since he was a teenager. This was one of his biggest hobbies. He would take pictures of animals, roses, his family, trips and underwater while snorkeling. He also took photos of simple everyday things, like seagulls and kids trick or treating at our house at Halloween. He loved animals, especially dogs, all his life. When we walked outdoors, a dog couldn’t walk by him with Joseph patting the dog. Even the scary looking ones! His dalmatian, Panda, will miss him.
His biggest projects in the past 6 months were to install a solar panel system that would allow us to use no fossil fuels at all. He also loved remodeling the house and made our kitchen very beautiful. Music was another passion, Joseph enjoyed classical music and opera.
Joseph’s other favorite hobbies and fond memories Cooking – Dad loved fine food… and cooking together was an adventure! There were a lot of squabbles in the kitchen. We are going to miss these moments in the kitchen, not to mention the tasty Hungarian food that Dad and Mom made together. Some favorite foods were: chicken paprikash, Hungarian layered potatoes and sausage casserole, roasted duck and Hungarian meatballs. Sushi – As you can see from the photos, sushi was a favorite! Dad jokingly talked about keeping his “blood sushi levels” in the healthy range. He got sushi almost weekly and loved sitting at the sushi bar. We always went out for sushi as a family when we got together in recent years. Boat – Going out on our Bayliner boat, which was called “Coral Point” – the common name was “Froggie.” Every weekend we would go to the Los Angeles or Ventura harbor and go fishing. We would spend the whole day on the boat – soaking in the sunshine, fishing and just relaxing. Dad loved the ocean. He knew a lot about fish and all things nautical. He gave us all a life-long love of the sea. Air Shows – When we were kids, we loved going to air shows with Dad. He and his best friend, Jim, would go watch as many as we could. His favorites were the Blue Angels. We think he would appreciate that today the Blue Angels are flying above us here in San Diego.
Joseph had a good life. He and Katherine established the family here in the United States. Starting with very little, they grew a life in America that anyone would be proud of. They gave Katherine and Ingrid a good education, a good future, and taught us the importance of family. We will all miss him greatly.
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Joseph Hemela 2018.
El Camino Memorial – Sorrento Valley
Death notice for the town of: san-diego, state: California