Joseph Albert Taub (May 29, 1929 – October 27, 2017) was an American businessman, philanthropist and sports owner. Born in
Paterson, New Jersey, he joined his brother
Henry Taub and
Frank Lautenberg
Frank Raleigh Lautenberg (; January 23, 1924 June 3, 2013) was an American businessman and Democratic Party politician who served as United States Senator from New Jersey from 1982 to 2001, and again from 2003 until his death in 2013. He was ori ...
in building the payroll company
Automatic Data Processing
ADP, Inc. (originally an acronym for Automatic Data Processing) is an American provider of human resources management software and services.
History
In 1949, Henry Taub founded Automatic Payrolls, Inc. as a manual payroll processing business wit ...
. After retiring from the business in 1969, he became a philanthropist who developed youth programs in his hometown of Paterson.
In 1978, Taub was part of an investment group that acquired the
New Jersey Nets
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
, which had been in financial difficulty. Taub, for a time, served as the principal owner and president of the team, and sold his ownership stake in 1985. In 1991, he re-joined the team’s ownership, taking a prominent public role until selling the majority of his stake in 1998.
Biography
Taub was born on May 29, 1929, in
Paterson, New Jersey to Morris Taub and Sylvia Sievitz, both Jewish immigrants from Poland. Taub was raised in Paterson and attended
Eastside High School. He later attended
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
.
Business career
Joseph’s older brother, Henry, founded ADP in 1949. Henry later brought Joe into the company along with future United States Senator
Frank Lautenberg
Frank Raleigh Lautenberg (; January 23, 1924 June 3, 2013) was an American businessman and Democratic Party politician who served as United States Senator from New Jersey from 1982 to 2001, and again from 2003 until his death in 2013. He was ori ...
to help manage the company’s operations and sales. In 1961, the trio took the company public with an initial offering on 100,000 shares priced at $3.00 each.
Taub retired in 1969 at the age of 40 to pursue his philanthropic interests. Over the years, he established scholarships for underprivileged youths, funded a museum of Paterson’s history and founded a youth basketball league with former
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
player,
Larry Doby
Lawrence Eugene Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003) was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black pl ...
, a Paterson native and fellow East Side alumnus.
New Jersey Nets
Taub, who had a longstanding interest in sports, partnered with attorney Alan Cohen, to invest in a franchise. In 1970, the pair bid unsuccessfully for the
New York Jets. He and Cohen eventually put together a consortium of nine investors to acquire the Nets, which under their then-owner, Roy Boe, were financially troubled. The team had amassed debts of $19 million and had lost a judgment of $4.2 million to
Cablevision
Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...
.
In 1981, the Nets hired
Larry Brown as coach. Brown led the team to a 91-67 record in two seasons with the Nets. In 1983, after discovering that Brown interviewed at the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
without asking for permission, Taub fired Brown at
Newark International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union Cou ...
with six games left in the season.
In 1985, Taub sold his interest in the team, citing frustration with the inability to turn a sports franchise around the way one could a business. He stayed away only six years before repurchasing an interest in the team in 1991.
In 1996, Taub emerged as an influential voice for the team when his brother Henry took over the club. A friend of coach
Rick Pitino
Richard Andrew Pitino (born September 18, 1952) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach for Iona College. He was also the head coach of Greece's senior national team. He has been the head coach of several teams in NCAA ...
, Joe attempted to lure Pitino to the Nets with a reported offer worth $30 million.
Pitino spurned the team to stay at the
Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball
The Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team is an American college basketball team that represents the University of Kentucky. Kentucky is the most successful NCAA Division I basketball program in history in terms of all-time winning percentag ...
.
The Nets ownership sold the team to
Lewis Katz and
Ray Chambers for $150 million.
Taub retained a small interest in the team.
Taub died October 27, 2017 at the age of 88.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taub, Joe
1929 births
2017 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American sports owners
American racehorse owners and breeders
Businesspeople from New Jersey
Eastside High School (Paterson, New Jersey) alumni
New Jersey Nets owners
Rutgers University alumni
Sportspeople from Paterson, New Jersey