Joseph Osipovich, M.D., Ph.D., MPH died on Sunday, January 15, 2017, after a brief but courageous battle with cancer. Joseph was born in the former Soviet Union in 1943, smack-dab in the middle of Word War II, the child of a wounded Soviet soldier and his nurse. He was raised by his grandparents, a Rabbi and his wife, in Odessa, Ukraine. At the age of 18, he moved to Moscow and married Tatiana Segal, with whom he had one child, Olga. In 1962, Joseph began his medical education at the First Moscow Medical Institute. He received an M.D. degree in 1968, and Ph.D. in 1973. Joseph practiced urology in Moscow from 1973-1981. After the tragic death of Tatiana in a 1971 traffic accident, Joseph married Alisa Birman in 1973. Their son David was born in 1974. In the late 1970s, seeking religious and personal freedom for himself and his family, Joseph petitioned the Soviet regime for permission to leave the U.S.S.R . After years of waiting, in 1981, Joseph, Alisa, Olga, and David were allowed to leave for the United States. The family first settled in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Joseph and Alisa had their second child, Helen, in 1984. Once in the United States, Joseph had to redo much of his medical education. From 1984-1985, he was a general-surgery resident at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Cleveland. Then, in 1985, Joseph, Alisa, David, and Helen moved to Chicago, where Joseph completed an Occupational Medicine residency and obtained a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Illinois (Circle). During the late 1980s-early 1990s, Joseph worked at a number of Chicagoland hospitals, including Hoffman Estates Hospital, Lake Forest Hospital, and Mercy Hospital. In 1996, he fulfilled his life-long dream -- which he could never have done had he remained in the country of his birth -- of having his own business and medical practice. Joseph founded, owned, and operated the Northbrook Occupational Medicine Centre (“NOMC”) in Northbrook -- a clinic for injured North-Suburban workers -- from 1996 until his retirement in 2014. Over the years, his patients at NOMC included employees of the Chicago Botanic Garden, employees of Underwriters Laboratories, officers of the Northbrook police department, local firefighters and taxi drivers, and many others. NOMC was very much a family business, and Alisa, David, and Helen all worked there at various points. Joseph’s greatest passions in life were his work and his family. He was also an avid reader of everything from science fiction to biography to politics to Harry Potter. He loved music, particularly jazz, opera, and 70s rock. Joseph is survived by his wife Alisa; his children Olga (Marv Kropko), David (Rachel Hedlund), and Helen (Matthew Deming); and his grandchildren Jonathan, Joshua (Rebecca Plagens), and Tiana. Services are private. Memorials can be made to the Chicago Botanic Garden or the American Cancer Society.