Joe Bernstein

Co-founder and Director of Tyler Hill Camp



Joe handled the books at Camp Rosemont for many years, where he became friends with Bill Heft. In 1955, Joe and Bill purchased the Wayne Country Club, where they transformed it into Tyler Hill Camp in 1956. While both men made the key decisions together, Bill spent much time out on the campus, supervising the program, as Joe ran the business from the Wayne Hall Office.

But Joe had a special knack for the personal touch when it came to making the staff feel like family. He and his wife Eleanor often threw late night parties in Wayne Hall for the staff. He was viewed by the Tyler Hill Camp Family as a true gentleman and a class act. He had a special friendship with Herman Pingel, where Joe always set time aside on Friday evenings to play host to Herman, for cocktails and conversation. They rarely spoke of business and it was that kind of approach that helped to maintain  long term relationships with the staff. Through his close friendship with Sy and Selma Sundick, he persuaded Sy to come over to work at Tyler Hill Camp.

It was on Joe's initiative that they have winter reunions each year at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, where campers would be called to the stage to receive their 5 year sweaters, or their 10 year coats. Later, Joe changed the reunions to having the boys meet at a Knicks' game, while the girls met at the Ice Capades.

His calm, warm and friendly demeanor was the perfect compliment to Bill's outgoing style and for 17 years, their partnership resulted in building one of the greatest and most successful sleep-away camps in the business. Although his close friends knew that he had a heart condition for a long time, his death in early 1973 was an awful shock, and a terrible blow to the Tyler Hill Camp Family.

Video Clip: Sy, Marian & Herman reflect on Joe