Remembering Joe Bankoff (1945-2024)
06/24/2024
Midtown Alliance celebrates the life of Joe Bankoff, a true city builder who left us too soon on June 10. Joe moved to Midtown in 1972 to practice law at King & Spalding. Over the next five-plus decades, Joe’s civic endeavors spanned a broad array, from leading and supporting the Atlanta region’s arts organizations and artists to educating and mentoring the next generation of international scholars, to seizing a public platform to detail the negative outcomes of partisan gerrymandering and a constructive path forward.
Joe would trace his approach to civic engagement from his early foundation in journalism, where he learned, “how to ferret out the real problem from the apparent problem – and explain it so people might want to solve it.” As those who worked with Joe would attest, among his many gifts was his ability to connect in a clear and captivating fashion – often with humor.
Joe held numerous leadership roles, including as CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, chair of the Sam Nunn School for International Affairs at Georgia Tech, and he spent two decades on the Midtown Alliance Board and Executive Committee, including two terms as chair.
Joe believed with conviction in the imperative that people get meaningfully involved in improving their communities, and he served as an inspiring example.
Read Joe's obituary here.
For those who wish to honor Joe, his family suggests a contribution to the following organizations
- Woodruff Arts Center
- National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
- Georgia Tech Foundation, Inc.