Written by Sean Ryan
Joyce Elizabeth Riesch, who passed away on January 15, just short of her 87th birthday, was, in every sense of the word, a successful woman in business and life.
Married for more than 50 years, she was a family-oriented woman, including her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.
“She was very passionate about her family,” said son-in-law Bill Sharp. “I think most of what she's done has been for her family.”
“She was devoted to her family,” said Leish's daughter, Sondra Sharp. “She was a very loving, very giving person. We all respected and adored her.”
She added that her mother balanced her life very well.
Longtime members of the Ponte Vedra community will remember her successful career in the local real estate industry. From the 1980s to her early 2000s, she sold over $500 million of her residential real estate. Almost all of them were in Ponte Vedra Beach.
And throughout her career, she never stopped caring about others.
“I think everyone who met her loved her,” Sharp said. “She was the kind of person that if you needed her help and came to her, she would stop what she was doing and help you.”
“When I think of her, I think of a warm person who embraced others not only with her intelligence and expertise, but also with her compassion and kindness,” said Claire Berry, broker and president of Berry & Company Real Estate. said. “She really had it all.”
Berry recalled an example of her friend's compassion.
One night in 1993, Berry left her office and was talking on the phone with Riesch about the property when Riesch asked her where she was and if she was alone. Berry answered in the affirmative.
“Promise me something,” Leash said. “When you do this at this time, be sure to call. Don't leave the office alone without doing it, because you're putting yourself at risk.”
Such an idea had never even occurred to Berry.
“But that's who she was,” Berry said. “She was an incredibly caring person. … I mean, how many people ask where you are and what you're doing and if you're OK?”
Riesch was born January 22, 1937, in Youngstown, Ohio, where she met and married Robert Riesch. Riesch later held management positions at JT Baker Chemical, General Foods, and Gallo Winery. In 1974 her family moved to Ponte Vedra Beach, where Joyce started a successful real estate business.
She focused almost exclusively on Ponte Vedra Beach, the area she knew best, and referred clients interested in other properties to agents familiar with those properties.
“I think that was one of the keys to her success,” Sharp said. “She knew her market so well that she could call and know everything about what was on sale and what was going to happen. She knew the community. She knew the people. And people knew her.”
She worked hard and was often at her desk by 3 or 4 a.m. She worked for Ponte Vedra Club Realty for a time and for many years at Arvida Realty Services.
“She was a top producer at Arvida Realty for a long time,” Berry said. “And for good reason. She was great at listing. She was great at sales. It didn't matter what she was doing. She gave it her all, and She did so with unquestionable honor and integrity.”
“Her client list was a who's who of America,” Sharp recalled. She sold homes to famous race car drivers, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and CEOs of large corporations.
“She was friends with every real estate agent you could think of in Ponte Vedra,” Sharp said. “They all looked up to her and went to her for advice.”
In fact, she helped Sharp start his career in the mortgage business. He said he learned a lot from her.
“She was a very strong person, an important person, a good person,” he said.
