Joseph Martin Rinaldi

NORTH EAST — Joseph Martin Rinaldi, 67, died on May 6, 2016, at home.

He was born in Newark, N.J., on Sept. 9, 1948, the son of Helen (Del Negro) and Mariano J. Rinaldi.

He graduated from Essex Catholic School and Georgetown University. He earned an MBA from Pace University and a master’s degree from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New  York University.

After college, Joe briefly worked at an accounting firm in New York City. There he met Nancy Flood; two months later they left their jobs and drove cross-country and subsequently married.

The young couple lived for 10 years on West 56th Street, equidistant between the Theater District and Lincoln Center. Joe loved the theater and performing arts, and even took acting lessons for a time. His father, who had been the business administrator and then police commissioner of Newark, had taken Joe to shows in Manhattan during the 1950s; to follow this custom as an adult helped Joe connect to the memory of his father.

After spending the 1970s working in the financial services industry in New York — while attending as many New York Knicks games in their glory days as possible — he and Nancy moved to Switzerland for two years. In 1984 they returned for the birth of their only child, Tim.

Joe worked for the Germany company Metallgesellschaft for many years, where he created and managed MG Trade Finance and MG Emerging Markets. He had a special talent for structuring complex financial deals.

When Metallgesellschaft closed its American offices, Joe and colleagues from MG started Stratum Group, a mezzanine finance company from which he retired in about 2005.

From the late 1980s, Joe and Nancy spent time in the Northwest Corner, eventually buying a house in Sharon, which they owned together for 18 years. It was the site of many large family gatherings.

After their marriage ended, they continued to share the house in Connecticut for many years.

While up in the Tri-state area, Joe met Libby McClintock, with whom he shared a passion for riding horses. In their more than 10 years together they traveled the world, rode horses everywhere they went — and helped create a preschool and kindergarten in a village in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Libby died in 2011, while on a riding trip with Joe in Colombia.

Joe was gregarious and social with a gift for connecting people. He loved to cook and took classes at the Culinary Institute of America. He was known for his generosity of spirit and grace. Once, as part of a small crew, he sailed across the Atlantic.

In the years after his retirement, Joe took the skills he had honed in the financial services industry and used them to help nonprofit groups. Particularly important to him were the North East Community Center in Millerton, the American branch of the Irish-based G.O.A.L. and Self-Help Africa. He was also an active board member of Hispaniola Health Partners, created by Louise Lindenmeyr of Salisbury to build clinics in order to provide health care in Haiti.

In addition to his son, Timothy of Taipei, Taiwan, and his former wife, Nancy of Bronxville, N.Y., he is survived by his sister, Elsie Rebovich of Whitehouse Station, N.J; many cousins, nieces, and nephews; and his dog, Roshi.

In addition to Libby, he was predeceased by his sister, Anita D’Alessio.

A memorial service will be held June 19 at 3 p.m. at the North East Community Center. Arrangements are under the care of the Conklin Funeral Home in Millerton. Memorial donations may be sent to the North East Community Center (NECC) and Hispaniola Health Partners.