Necrology

Joseph Farwell Maycock, Jr. '52

Jun. 8, 1930-Jul. 28, 2022

Joseph Farwell Maycock, Jr. ’52, P’91 died on July 28, 2022, in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich. Born in Buffalo on June 8, 1930, he was raised in Grosse Pointe and came to Hamilton from the Detroit University School. On the Hill, he was a member of Chi Psi fraternity and majored in history and political science in preparation for a career in the law. 

Joe’s extracurricular preoccupation was track and field, and he was on the varsity team throughout his time at Hamilton. Not surprisingly, he was also a member of the Block “H” Club for all four years. He joined The Spectator as a freshman and the Outing Club and the International Relations Club during his junior and senior years. As a senior, he also served on the Chapel Board and for a time was scholarship chairman for his fraternity.

From Hamilton, Joe proceeded to the University of Michigan Law School, where he completed his Juris Doctor degree in 1955. Thereafter, he served in the Army for two years, stationed for much of the time in the southern Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which had been the site of the 1936 Olympic Games.

Returning to the Detroit area, he joined the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock, and Stone in January 1958, becoming a partner 10 years later. On May 25, 1958, he married Margaret “Peggy” Lee Shaw. They had two daughters and a son.

Joe specialized in corporate law, concentrating in the area of employee benefits with particular attention to the impact of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act on benefit plans for employees. In 2004, Joe made the transition to “retired, of counsel,” meaning that although he had stepped down as an active partner he could assist in cases the firm was handling. He did not fully retire until 2013.

Not surprisingly Joe was a member of the American, Michigan, and Detroit Bar Associations, and he served the state bar association as a member of the employee benefits committee of the taxation section; the council of the corporations, finance, and business section; and as chairman of the professional corporations committee of the latter section. Additionally, he was for a time a member of the board of the Small Business Council of America and director of the Michigan employee benefits conference. 

Joe also served as a frequent speaker on employee benefits for the American Bar Association, the American Law Institute, the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, and the Detroit College of Law, among other continuing education programs of lawyers. For all these accomplishments, he was recognized in 1997 and again in 1999 as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for employee benefits law.

Joe and his family were active members of Christ Church Grosse Pointe, where he was at different times chancellor, senior warden of the vestry, and member of the finance committee. He also served on the board of directors of the Greater Detroit Society for the Blind.

Joe remained busy in retirement. He jogged, played tennis, worked in his garden, and traveled widely with Peggy. Based surely in part on one of his undergraduate majors, Joe was an active reader of history and joined with like-minded friends in engaging with the subject. On occasion, he did part-time legal work for his old firm.

Joe was a loyal alumnus. At different times, he volunteered to support two capital campaigns and was a member of the Alumni Council, the Alumni Association, the special gifts committee, and his reunion gift committee.

Joe regarded his support as repayment for lessons learned on the Hill. As he wrote in his 50th reunion yearbook: “I learned the basics of clear writing and speaking at Hamilton. These skills have been extremely useful to me in the practice of law.” While he learned the value of integrity and hard work prior to matriculating, he observed that “the people I met [on the Hill] helped reinforce those values.”

Joseph F. Maycock, Jr. is survived by his wife, two daughters, including Suzannah Maycock Brown ’91, and a son.

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