A memorial service will be held Tuesday, Oct. 22, for Joe J. Stasulat, manager of internship and career programs in the agricultural and environmental sciences at the University of California, Davis. He died Wednesday following an apparent heart attack at the age of 59.

A celebration of his life will be held from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Putah Creek Lodge at UC Davis, with a brief service of remembrance beginning at 4 p.m..

Stasulat was well known on campus and in industry for his efforts to link UC Davis students with practical internship experiences connected to their academic and career goals. He also was a lecturer, played a key leadership role in several campus organizations and was pivotal to a number of activities in UC Davis' College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Born April 13, 1943, in Bell, Calif., Joe Stasulat graduated from Madera Union High School in 1961. He operated the Madera Angus Ranch there for the next four years while earning a bachelor's degree in agricultural business management from what is now California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

He then taught vocational agriculture at Wasco Union High School in Wasco, Calif., and completed a master's degree in agricultural education and management at Cal Poly. He went on to receive a doctoral degree in agricultural education and applied behavioral sciences at Pennsylvania State University in 1970.

He served two years as assistant director for resident instruction at Penn State before coming to UC Davis in 1973 as a lecturer and coordinator of the Bixby Work-Learn program, a campuswide program providing students with work experience related to their academic interests.

When the Bixby program was expanded to become the Internship and Career Center in 1975, he assumed the role of program manager. His responsibilities included a wide range of activities including analyzing employment market trends, planning future center directions, and developing extensive internship and employer contracts.

He also oversaw the quality and delivery of internship and career services in the agricultural and environmental sciences, and in education and graduate placement. He supervised a staff of professional and peer advisers, and provided advising services himself.

In addition to his responsibilities in the Internship and Career Center, he was a lecturer in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, and was actively involved in leadership roles on campus for the Academic Federation, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Quarter Century Club.

"Joe put the needs of students above everything else," recalled Professor Bob Flocchini, a colleague from Stasulat's home department of land, air and water resources. "He was concerned that they have real world experiences in addition to classroom learning. The internships that he arranged for many of our students were keys to their future success."

In arranging for student internships, Stasulat forged lasting relationships between UC Davis and governmental agencies and agricultural businesses, ranging from small family-owned companies and farms to huge international conglomerates.

"Joe was a man of few words but of tremendous vision and ingenuity," said Professor Al Harrison, director of the UC Davis Internship and Career Center. "As many California farmers would put it, Joe Stasulat was a man of his word, a man you could trust.

"We at the Internship and Career Center will miss his relentless pursuit of new initiatives, his knack for making good friends for the campus, and his success at delivering high-quality education to students both on campus and at northern California high schools.

"But most of all, we will miss Joe's warmth, friendship and great sense of humor," said Harrison.

Stasulat is survived by his wife Edith "Edie" Stasulat and daughters Caroline and Katie of Davis and daughter Courtney Rubio and her husband, Vasco, and their sons Max, Keegan and Hayden, all of Everett, Wash. He also leaves a sister in Washington and a brother in Oregon, and his former wife, Priscilla Stasulat of Seattle, Wash.

The Stasulat family is in the process of establishing a memorial fund in his name.