{"id":109403,"date":"2026-02-09T21:03:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109403\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T21:03:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:03:53","slug":"easton-area-community-loses-former-superintendent-to-skin-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109403\/","title":{"rendered":"Easton Area community loses former superintendent to skin cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime Easton Area School District educator and administrator Joseph Kish<\/a> died Sunday, according to his obituary<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The 77-year-old served as a reading teacher who worked his way up through the administration to become superintendent over his 35-year career. He died from skin cancer, his obituary<\/a> says.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be recalled \u201cfor his tough demeanor and high expectations, yet respect, when it came to students, teachers, staff, and parents,\u201d his obituary says.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe was truly a legend,\u201d the obituary says, adding, \u201cAsk anyone who went to the district when he was there and they will surely have a story for you about the infamous Mr. Kish!\u201d<\/p>\n

He has served twice as acting superintendent: once in 2003 before former Superintendent Dennis Riker was hired, and once from 2007 to 2008, before Superintendent Susan McGinley was hired, according to the Express-Times archives.<\/p>\n

He started with the district in 1975, served as assistant principal at Shawnee Elementary, served as middle school principal, and later served as director of human services and director of auxiliary services. Kish retired in 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He grew up in Allegheny County and met his wife at Slippery Rock University. She was from Easton, which led the couple to relocate here, the obituary says.<\/p>\n

Easton Area alumni will also remember Kish for his love of fishing, the obituary says.<\/p>\n

Kish was survived by his daughter, Erica Elizabeth Kish-Palos, the obituary says. <\/p>\n

A Celebration Of Life service will be held in the spring at a local fishing spot, the obituary says.<\/p>\n

Memorial contributions in his name may be made to The Sanctuary at Haafsville in Breinigsville.<\/p>\n

\"JosephExpress-Times file photo of former Easton Area School District Superintendent Joseph Kish from 2007.lehighvalleylive.com file photo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime Easton Area School District educator and administrator Joseph Kish died Sunday, according to his obituary. The 77-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,591],"class_list":{"0":"post-109403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-merlinmigration2014"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}