Joan Rita Gold

Joan Gold was a Bronx-born mother, grandmother, hairdresser, educator and longtime Board of Education employee. She was known for her deep love of family and friends and for making people feel genuinely cared for. She died on October 12, 2026, at the age of 87.
Joan raised three children as a single mother and spent much of her life working more than one job at a time to provide for her family. She worked as a hairdresser and taught hairdressing, catered alongside members of her family, and spent more than 30 years as an audiovisual technician for the Board of Education.
Joan was friendly, easy to talk to, and had a way of making people feel immediately at ease. She was generous, accepting and remarkably difficult to rattle.
She welcomed people without judgment and gave freely of what she had, whether that meant her time, her home, a meal or a helping hand. Her circle of friends stretched across the many different chapters of her life.
Joan endured profound loss during her lifetime. Her son Brett died in 1995, and her daughter, Frances, died in 2019. She carried those losses for the rest of her life without ever letting them dim her warmth toward others.
She is survived by her son Nathan; her daughter-in-law, Diana; and her grandchildren, Michelle and Julia, all of whom she cherished.
For the people who loved her, Joan’s legacy is less about any one accomplishment than the feeling she left behind: that you were welcome, that you mattered, and that there was always room for one more person.