SHARON — Dr. Joseph Valentine Hajek of Sharon, Connecticut, died in the early morning of Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. He was 89.
Joe was born in New York City on Sept. 8, 1936, the son of Joseph Hajek, born in 1889 in Prague, Bohemia and Olga Weber Hajek. He attended Trinity School and Philips Exeter Academy, and he graduated from Harvard College in 1958. After his undergraduate years in the Harvard ROTC, he entered the Navy for three years, achieving the rank of Lieutenant JG.
After his honorable discharge, he married Cicily Warren in 1962 while attending Harvard Medical School. After an internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, he took up an orthopedic residency at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. He also spent time abroad on a traveling fellowship, studying with John Charnley in England and Maurice Mueller in Bern, Switzerland. After a return to Brooklyn, New York, Joe and his family settled in Sharon in 1975, where he became the first orthopedic surgeon at Sharon Hospital. He retired in 2004 and spent the rest of his life in Sharon.
Joe led an active outdoor life, enjoying rowing, tending his apple orchard, making play equipment for his grandchildren, and caring for his dogs. He maintained his expansive property with his beloved tractors, chainsaws, log splitter, and other equipment perhaps less precise than his surgical tools, but which he used no less ably.
Joe is survived by his loving wife of 64 years and by his sister Barbara Ulman of Lake Oswego, Oregon. He was predeceased by his sister Olga Cassard.
He is also survived by his daughter Schenley Hall and husband Jeffrey of Tucson, Arizona and grandsons Jonathan, Benjamin, and Nicholas; son Luke and wife Janet of Denver, Colorado, and grandsons Ryan and Trevor; daughter Mathilde Ross and husband Rob of Brookline, Massachusetts; and grandchildren Calvert, Josephine, and Winthrop; and son Justin of Sharon and granddaughter Julia.
Funeral services will be held at Christ Church Episcopal in Sharon at 11:00 AM on Saturday, Aug. 29.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to any of three organizations near and dear to Joe’s heart: the Sharon Audubon Society, the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon, or Christ Church Episcopal.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.
