Joseph G. Gindele

Twins Joe and John Gindele, award-winning Minnesota authors, are survivors who think and work outside of the box. They grew up in a tenement railroad flat in Yorkville on Manhattan’s ethnic Upper East Side in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, and attended public schools. Born to immigrant Czech and German parents, raised in a family of seven, they endured living in Yorkville, one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city (known then as “a bucket of blood”).

At age 18 they moved from New York City to Minnesota, became Industrial Education and Mathematics teachers (and later Media Specialists/Librarians), taught for a combined 64 years from kindergarten to university, earned doctorates (D.I.T.) in Industrial Technology from Iowa, and completed internships in Japan and at 3M in St. Paul. They lived the American dream!

The Gindele’s (1) published articles in refereed scholarly journals, (2) their educational materials have been used in secondary schools and colleges in 23 countries, and (3) they won national and international scholarships and awards.

Their memoir, Yorkville Twins, has been adopted as required reading for college freshmen on various NY campuses in classes called, “The Immigration Experience in New York City.” Yorkville Twins is a Midwest Book Awards winner.

The twins volunteer on food lines for their church, travel, and live in Crystal, a NW suburb of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

“Good memories are a wonderful thing—like a camera, they capture and record the past, soothe and delight the soul.