'The kindest, gentlest man': Berkshires County health advocate Charles 'Chip' Joffe

Jun 27, 2023

Business writer

Charles "Chip" Joffe-Halpern, a well-known Berkshire health care advocate, who headed Ecu-Health Care in North Adams for 20 years, died Wednesday following a long illness.

WILLIAMSTOWN — He was one of Berkshire County’s most well-known health advocates, and according to a former colleague, a friend and mentor to many.

Charles “Chip” Edward Joffe-Halpern, who headed two Berkshire health care agencies, a stint that included a 20-year run as executive director of Ecu-Health Care in North Adams, died on Wednesday following a long illness.

“There are no words to express,” said Karen Baumbach, a former colleague, who became executive director of Ecu-Health Care when Joffe-Halpern retired in September 2015.

“He was just the kindest, gentlest man who would go out of his way to help anyone in any situation, not just in health care,” Baumbach said. “Just an amazing human being.

“I worked with him for almost 15 years and there was just not a gentler soul on this Earth,” she said.

After retiring from Ecu-Health Care, Joffe-Halpern briefly served as executive director of the Berkshire Area Health Education Center, helping the agency move from its location on West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield to Berkshire Community College in 2017. Berkshire AHEC then moved to Dalton in 2019.

Sheila Dargie, Berkshire AHEC’s center director, worked with Joffe-Halpern during that 2017 transition period and said he was instrumental in helping the agency move.

“He was a very selfless person and just loved life,” Dargie said. “[He was] well connected with the community. As an agency we were in transition and he helped us through that, coming out of retirement.”

Joffe-Halpern became executive director of Ecu-Health Care shortly after the agency’s founding in 1995. A private, nonprofit health coverage access program, Ecu-Health Care is the designated outreach and enrollment site in Northern Berkshire County for all state health programs, and also assists residents to enroll in all supplemental programs associated with Medicare.

Joffe-Halpern, who was 65 when he left the agency, told The Eagle at the time that he planned “to explore other options.”

Whatever the reason, Baumbach said Joffe-Halpern didn’t stay away from the health care field for long.

“Absolutely not,” Baumbach said. “He was born to help people.”

Born in 1949 in Syracuse, N.Y., Joffe-Halpern received a master’s degree in social work from the University of Albany (N.Y.) in 1977. Later that same year, he met his future wife, Ellen, while working as a clinician at a residential treatment school. An artist, Ellen was also Jaffe-Halpern’s co-therapist at the school. The couple were married at Tanglewood in 1979.

“With the kind of work that we do we’re often faced with people who are at their most vulnerable and anxious,” Baumbach said. “He just had a way of making people feel calm and comfortable.

“I don’t even know how to explain,” she said. “He just had this sense about him that brought peace to people.”

Known for wearing his ubiquitous bowtie, Joffe-Halpern received several awards including one from the National Association of Social Workers for outstanding contributions to that profession.

He also had a fun side. In one outreach campaign he conducted he tried to get the city of North Adams to break the Guinness Book of World Record for most people consecutively brushing their teeth.

Joffe-Halpern also served as president of the board of directors at Health Care For All in Boston, and served on the inaugural Health Connector board during the implementation of universal health care in Massachusetts during former Gov. Mitt Romney’s term. Joffe-Halpern was also a member of The Berkshire Eagle’s Advisory Board

Ecu-Health Care was primarily a volunteer physician program. But it became Northern Berkshire's primary outreach and enrollment site, and a model program for the rest of the state, following the passage of significant health coverage expansions in 1997 and 2006.

“Chip took me into the agency and just sort of guided me,” Baumbach said. "He sort of let me have my own space to learn and develop, but he was always there as someone you can go to and lean on. Even after he retired everything I ever needed, he was there.”

Joffe-Halpern is survived by his wife, his daughter, his son, two brothers, and five grandchildren. He was predeceased by his mother, father and sister.

A funeral service will be held 9 a.m. Monday at the Flynn and Dagnoli-Montagna Funeral Home in North Adams followed by burial at Eastlawn Cemetery in Williamstown. A Shiva memorial service will be held between 5 and 8 p.m. Monday at 328 Luce Road in Williamstown.

In lieu of flowers the family would appreciate donations to Ecu-Health Care in North Adams, Health Care For All MA, or a charity of choice.

Tony Dobrowolski can be reached at [email protected] or 413-496-6224.

Business writer