Saint Joseph

When Joseph Albright died on May 5, 2022, at age 93, he was in in his 58th year as a reporter and columnist for Hudson County’s “Jersey Journal,” and was the longest-serving statehouse reporter in America. Because Albright was usually a week ahead
filing his work, his final column appeared in print and on line the day he died.
A deeply religious Catholic, “Jersey Joe” was known for his daily habit of feeding and blessing animals on or near the grounds of the New Jersey Statehouse prompting Albright’s media colleagues to refer to him as “the Saint Frances of Assisi of the statehouse.” Most people who live or work near downtown Trenton and passed by him each day as he moved slowly with his walker to and from the bus stop and along West State Street , may have assumed he is either homeless or mentally ill, or both. They could have had no idea that Albright was a working journalist, possessing a memory that allowed him recount endless behind the scenes stories, dates, and landmark legislative battles that left his state house journalist brethren in awe.