Joe Lex retired in 2016 after 45+ years in emergency medicine. He started as a combat medic in Viet Nam and ended as a professor of Emergency Medicine at Temple University
When he took a tour of Philadelphia’s historic Laurel Hill Cemetery, which was founded in 1836, he realized that the role of a cemetery docent seemed to suit his personality. After a year or so of giving tours, he decided that both cemeteries, Laurel Hill East and West, needed a podcast to talk about their amazing inhabitants. The result was "All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories", followed a couple of years later by "Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories."
Soon, Joe had accumulated hundreds of scripts loaded with biographical and historical information, along with some pretty astounding stories of movers and shakers, artists, authors, entertainers, scholars, educators, healers and givers, among many more.
After Viet Nam, Joe earned an associate degree in nursing. He later graduated from medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. He subsequently spent 14 years as a community emergency physician before entering academia in 2003.
He’s been an invited speaker at dozens of national and international meetings of Emergency Physicians. After serving five years as chair of the education committee for the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, its Educator of the Year Award was renamed the "Joe Lex Award."
And for seven years he was the producer, researcher, and announcer for a weekly radio show on WPPM-Philadelphia. One of his podcasts is now ranked the Number 1 Philadelphia History Podcast.
Recently, Joe published All Bones Considered: 52 Laurel Hill Women, which I’ve read and found to be a fascinating compendium of amazing women buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, many of whom helped make the United States the remarkable place it has been for so long. I highly recommend it to you.
