Photos by Stephan Reed
When Joseph Karam helped found the Columbus chapter of the American-Syrian Lebanese Club in 1946, he had no idea his membership in the club would take him.
“I graduated Holy Rosary High School and had every job you can imagine,” he says. “One day, I helped get the club together, and that was the turning point in my life.”
Joe, now chairman of Cedar Enterprises in Grandview, became president of the club and was invited to a national convention – where he made a personal connection that would last a lifetime.
“During the convention, someone said ‘Let’s go see Danny Thomas tonight,’” Joe says. “And I said, ‘Who is he?’ They told me he was a famous Lebanese comedian, so we went. It was a great night. We got a picture together, and I’d give a thousand dollars to find that picture now.”
Joe was drafted during the Korean War in 1950, fulfilled his 14-month duties and returned home with a sense of determination. He spent the next four and a half years working to obtain degrees in pre-law and law simultaneously.
“I went straight to college when I returned,” he says. “I quit the pop truck, I quit the steel mill and I went to The Ohio State University. Instead of taking 14 to 15 credit hours a quarter, three quarters a year, I took 21-22 hours a quarter and went four quarters a year. I had extra jobs throughout, 50 cents an hour.”
After graduation in 1957, Joe received a call from a friendly and familiar voice asking him to be the Lebanese ambassador for St. Jude.
“One of my first phone calls I got while I was at a small law firm was from Danny Thomas,” he says. “I was shocked that he remembered my name. He had just made an announcement to the world that he was going to build a hospital in Memphis, Tenn. with no billing department, but he needed a Lebanese in every city. He asked me to be involved and I said, ‘of course.’”
From the hospital’s humble beginnings, Joe did whatever fundraising was necessary. Attending conventions and marching door-to-door asking for donations, he was committed every step of the way.
“We started with teenagers marching with canisters, asking for donations,” Joe says. “There was no St. Jude’s, just an artist’s picture. I’ve been on the board since ’57, before it was even built. Our budget in 1962 was roughly $300,000 a year. Today, the complex is huge. Our budget is $875 million a year.”
Joe is an emeritus member of the board of directors for the hospital. The Discover the Dream fundraiser, held each May in Columbus, has raised more than $2.5 million for St. Jude since 2006.
This display of dedication rubbed off on Joe’s children, who are now board members of St. Jude’s and organizers of Discover the Dream. Helping their father roll coins in the living room, each child learned to value giving both time and money to charitable causes.
“Everybody got into the act, all of my siblings,” says David, Joe’s son and president of the Sbarro restaurant chain. “From a young age, we participated in these marches. They would get hundreds of thousands of kids going door-to-door raising money. All that money in Columbus would come back to our house. The whole family would be in the living room, counting all weekend.”
Joe’s morale and spirits at the hospital were high, but a call from a local restaurateur boosted them further – and sent his life in a completely new direction.
“The phone rang and a meek, humble voice said, ‘My name is Dave Thomas and I like what you and Danny are doing,’” Joe says. “He wanted me to come over so he could give me a check.”
At the time, Thomas had sold KFC franchises and wanted to open his own franchise: Wendy’s. Joe met Dave in his Columbus office.
“He sat there and mesmerized me for three hours, and I sat there with a folded check that I couldn’t open up in front of him,” Joe says. “As soon as I stepped out the door, I saw that the check was for $325,000. That was the beginning.”
Five years later, Dave Thomas called Joe and said he wanted to give him a piece of his Wendy’s franchise.
“He gave me one, but I didn’t want one in the middle of nowhere … I wanted the one in Las Vegas,” he says. “And we grew and grew.”
Joe, an Upper Arlington resident, cites his wife, Louise, as one of his greatest inspirations. They met while Joe was emceeing for the Lebanese-American-Syrian Club’s variety show.
“As I was announcing an act, the door opened up, and – this is gospel – I saw her,” he says. “I thought ‘That’s it.’ She resisted because she was shy, but that was in 1954 and we were married Nov. 19, 1955.”
Louise made her way to Columbus from Martins Ferry, Ohio with her widowed mother and six siblings.
“Mother wanted us to have a chance for a future,” Louise says.
The future she and Joe found has influenced not only their own family, but millions of lives through St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“Mom and Dad really instilled in us an appreciation of service, but also this sense of gratitude because the financial wealth came through the association with the Wendy’s brand, ultimately, as a willingness to serve a greater cause,” David says. “Every one of the kids has a deep sense of commitment to service and honor to St. Jude.”
Stephan Reed is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
Note: this story has been edited for clarification. Louise is from Martins Ferry, not Martinsville. St. Jude's is a benefactor of Discover the Dream, not a sponsor. Joe is an emeritus member of the board of directors for the hospital, not a cofounder.
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