Jos's death was so sudden, inexplicable, and devastating that it suggested gifts to the Heart Association.

Jos's life suggests to us another charity. He loved bicycles; he loved associating with Spanish peoples; and he recycled. This suggests Pedals for Progress (P4P) a charitable organization that gives used bicycles to third world countries, mostly Spanish speaking countries.

The photo shows Jos wearing a bicycle tee shirt between two sweet-looking Ecuadorian misses. Click on the photo.

Jos with Bicycles

1. The picture shows Jos preparing to assemble eight bicycles.
2. In his creative writing a godess carries him away on her bicycle.
3. In one of his college application essays, Jos writes about what he learned working in a bike shop. He also worked in two others.
4. Jos volunteered his time in a poor neighborhood teaching youngsters how to repair bikes.
5. He left five bicycles behind in this world.

Jos with Spanish

1. While in high school he produced a hilarious short film in Spanish.
2. Jos writes in one of his college application essays that he graduated early from high school so that he could go work in Mexico.
3. One summer he went to Ecuador and wrote an exuberant diary of his time there. Don't miss his story of teaching automechanics how to pick up a Gringa.
4. Alejandro Cabrera tells us the warm (and very funny!) story of Jos seeking out Alejandro's parents.
5. Jos traveled with his family to Venezuela and Costa Rica, the latter recalled by Amy.

College buddy Alejandro Cabrera writes,

" The People's Guide to Mexico, Carl Franz's definitive and irreverant tome on traveling through my home country, Jos let me borrow this guide the first year we met in college. His lending it to me is one of my earliest memories of him.

He didn't so much as lend it as much as he pitched it, preached about it, proselytized.

I remember reading through it and thinking, even with what little I knew of him then, that it was almost as if he had written it himself. It had a certain flair, a different way of looking at life."

Jos and Recycling

I remember Jos's environmental outlook when it came to really all things, but specifically how it manifested itself with the plastic eating utensils used in the WebTV cafe.

While the rest of the employees would throw away their plastic forks and knives with each meal, Jos would carefully clean his and place them in a Ziploc bag for safe keeping until his next meal. I happened to be eating with him the day the knife finally gave out. While sawing through a particularly tough hunk of something or other, it snapped in half. The look on Jos' face can only be defined as incredulous. He was crestfallen, but true to Jos' nature, not defeated. He grabbed the half knife, (the sharper half naturally) and continued to fight to cut his food.

I do recall he did throw the broken half away after the meal but the point was made. Jos got a few months use out of one plastic knife, keeping the landfills of the earth just that much less abused.

And now

1. We have received word (2003) that a 45' container of 500 used bicycles, 318 boxes of parts, and 17 sewing machines is on a container ship on its way to Latin America (Nicaragua). Jos's spirit is there with it, undoubtedly with new adventures every day.
2. We have received word (2007) that the spirit of Jos travels with a container of 535 bikes and 11 sewing machines for FIDESMA in Chimaltenango, Guatemala.