Joseph Drexel, a yoga instructor and a longtime resident of the East Village, died on July 14 at age 69.
He served for many years as a volunteer and committee member at the Sirovich Senior Center, 331 E. 12th St.
Diagnosed with prostate cancer several years ago, he died by his own hand in his E. Ninth St. home, said his friend and East Village neighbor John Windsor.
Joseph Drexel was born and raised in Minnesota and became a Trappist monk, spending 15 years in the Cistercian order, Windsor said.
“He left the monastery at the age of 39 and became a militant atheist,” Windsor said. “He was an associate of the late Madalyn Murray O’Hair.” A founder of American Atheists, O’Hair was dubbed in Life magazine as “the most hated woman in America.” She filed the federal lawsuit that went to the U.S. Supreme Court resulting in a decision that ended prayer in American public schools.
Joseph Drexel has a surviving sister, a Catholic nun in a cloistered community in the Midwest, Windsor said.
