Joseph Willard Roosevelt

Joseph Willard Roosevelt (January 16, 1918 – May 18, 2008) was an American pianist and composer.

He was the second son of Kermit Roosevelt and Belle Wyatt Willard. His paternal grandparents were U.S. President Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. and First Lady Edith Kermit Carow.

Roosevelt attended, like several of his family members, Groton School and Harvard University and studied piano with Nadia Boulanger in France.

He served in the Pacific during World War II. He was commissioned in the Naval Reserve on August 19, 1940 and was promoted to lieutenant on March 1, 1943. Later in the war, he served as captain of the USS Greene, (APD-36). With the Greene he supported the invasion of southern France in August 1944 and later served on escort duties in the Pacific.

Joseph was first married to Nancy Thayer, daughter of E. E. Cummings and Elaine Orr.

He taught music at The Hartt School, Mannes College of Music, Fairleigh Dickinson University and the Longy School of Music.

Roosevelt's compositions are published by the American Composers Alliance and Merion Music.

Roosevelt died at the age of 90 on May 18, 2008.

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