Joel Fleishman, professor of law and public policy and the namesake of the Fleishman House, died at age 90 after over 53 years of service to the University.
Fleishman was the founding director of the Sanford School, appointed by President Terry Sanford to lead the initiative then known as the Institute for Policy Sciences and Public Affairs.
“With energy, optimism and generosity that were boundless, Joel Fleishman embodied the best of Duke University,” wrote Provost Alec Gallimore in a Monday email to The Chronicle. “His devoted service to this institution and its people is a model that every Duke leader can emulate.”
The news was shared in a Monday release from the Sanford School of Public Policy. The cause of his death was not shared publicly.
Fleishman was awarded the University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service in 2009, one of Duke’s highest honors.
A North Carolina native, Fleishman was born in Fayetteville in 1934. He received his bachelor’s degree and Doctor of Law from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1955 and 1959, respectively, and later received a Master of Law from Yale University in 1960.
He worked as an assistant to the director of Yale’s Walter E. Meyer Research Institute of Law in 1960, then left in 1961 to serve under Sanford as a legal assistant to the then-governor until 1965. After returning to Yale to direct the Yale Summer High School and later serve as associate provost for Urban Studies and Programs, he followed Sanford to Duke in 1971 to establish what would one day become the Sanford School.
Fleishman played an integral role in building up the program through fundraising, securing support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The school began offering classes to undergraduates in 1972 and established a Master of Public Policy program two years later.
In 1983, he left his leadership position in the institute to chair a capital campaign for the arts and sciences and engineering, the first of its kind at Duke. He ultimately helped raise roughly $500 million for the University.
“Many of the buildings around campus [and the] endowment money that arts and sciences lives off of up to this day, it was raised by him,” said Fleishman’s longtime assistant Cassie Lewis in a 2023 interview with The Chronicle.
To commemorate the lasting impact Fleishman had on its development, the Sanford School established the Joel Fleishman Distinguished Professorship of Public Policy in 2019. The position was supported by $4 million worth of donations from 28 families and individuals, many of whom were former students of Fleishman.
Fleishman later took on many administrative roles, including as the University’s vice president in 1985, senior vice president in 1988 and first senior vice president in 1993.
Throughout his time in the administration, Fleishman maintained his role as an educator. He taught LAW 585, Philanthropy, Voluntarism and Not-For-Profit Law and Management, for over 50 years, and courses on campaign finance reform and legal ethics.
Fleishman was known for the close relationships he built with his students, with a penchant for grading papers himself.
He was also very active in uplifting Duke’s Jewish community. Fleishman grew up in a conservative Jewish family, following in his father’s footsteps to serve as cantor at Beth Israel Synagogue for 50 years.
“His wisdom, charisma, love and deep commitment to strengthening Judaism at Duke impacted generations of Jewish Blue Devils,” wrote Rabbi Nossen Fellig in a Monday email to the Chabad at Duke University community. “Thousand[s] of people considered him their mentor, confidante and friend. He was a pillar of strength, leadership and wisdom to so many.”
In June 2021, a red brick house across from East Campus was purchased by Chabad at Duke University and named the Fleishman House, in honor of Fleishman’s longtime support for the University’s Jewish community.
In the greater Jewish community, he is well known for his work in Mesorah Publications, a press that specializes in translation of Jewish religious texts. He served as the founding member of the Mesorah Heritage Foundation’s board of trustees.
Fleishman was also a founding trustee of the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, as well as a trustee of Brandeis University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the American Friends of the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Partnership for Public Service.
He stepped down from his teaching role at the end of the spring 2023 semester. During his final class, Fleishman’s last crop of students organized a Zoom reunion of over 100 former students reaching back for decades who reminisced on Fleishman’s “detailed feedback” as an instructor and expressed their gratitude for “the time [he] invested in” his students and “making Duke such a great place.”
But although his teaching days drew to an end, Fleishman never fully left Duke. He continued to play a role in the University’s fundraising efforts and also ran the Foundation Impact Research Group seminar, the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society and the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center for Ethics, Public Policy and the Professions.
“For more than half a century, Joel was a valued colleague, mentor and friend to thousands of members of the Duke community,” Price said. “As we mourn his passing, we also honor his profound impact here at Duke and far beyond.”
According to Fellig, Fleishman’s funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Beth El Synagogue in Durham.
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Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.