Joseph P. Cairo

La Salle University Professor Joseph P. Cairo, Economics Teacher for 40 Years, Dies at 66 

Joseph P. Cairo, who inspired economics students at La Salle for 40 years, died early Sunday morning at his home in Ambler.  He was 66.  Cairo had maintained a rigorous schedule of teaching and study until the final days of his nearly nine year battle with multiple myeloma.   

“Dad’s whole adult life, at work and at home, was devoted to revising and improving his teaching at La Salle,” said his youngest son, Matthew. “He was always looking forward to going back to school.”  Cairo had been planning to teach in the fall ’04 semester.   

Cairo was born in Philadelphia on July 17, 1937.  The son of a factory worker and a homemaker, he began working at a grocery store while still in elementary school to help to pay for his own tuition.  It was during these early days that Cairo developed his love of education. 

After attending La Salle College High School and graduating from La Salle College in 1960, Cairo went on to earn an M.A. in Economics from The University of Pennsylvania.  He joined the La Salle College Department of Economics faculty in 1963, and in 1967, he received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award.  He later earned a second M.A. in English from Temple University.  He often described his career at La Salle as a dream job, and always encouraged young people to stay in school as long as they could. 

“He was a wonderful guy and a tremendous teacher,” said Joseph Mooney, Cairo’s long-time colleague, now retired. “His students loved him. He had tremendous energy. I don’t think anybody had more energy in the classroom, and that’s what kept him going.”

Mooney said Cairo would often get so caught up in his teaching that his classes would run past their allotted time, causing other teachers and students to have to stand outside the room until he had finished. “He’d say ‘Just one more thing,’ and go on for ten more minutes,” said Mooney. 

One of Cairo’s great loves was teaching first year undergraduate courses.  James K. Gulick, La Salle’s Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations, took an introductory course with Cairo and was so impressed with him he switched majors to Economics.

 Cairo took a sabbatical in 2000, during which he traveled with his wife to Shropshire, England to research the beginnings of the industrial revolution, a key interest related to his course The History of Economic Thought. Ultimately dissatisfied with available textual analyses of readings he required of his students in this course, Cairo later initiated a text of his own, a project he pursued aggressively through his final weeks. 

Cairo married his wife, Paula, in 1973. In addition to Matthew, they have another son, Joseph, and a daughter, Julia.  Cairo is also survived by his brother, Robert F. Cairo, of Dayton, Ohio.

 A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated this Friday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 259 Forest Avenue in Ambler. Friends may call from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the church. Interment at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery will follow.