As a young boy, Joseph Malcolm Weinkopf was a good brother. Experiencing the joys of a large Catholic family, he was the third child to Mary Kate and Chris Weinkopf, and he relished being the older sibling to four more who would come along by the time he was 11. 

Although he “forged deep friendships” with his older brother and sister, his parents say “he was endlessly inventive in devising games to play with his younger siblings, and they cheered him on as he worked his way up the ranks” in countless sports, including baseball, soccer and track. 

The tragic news of his passing came last weekend, but it’s a reality that Joseph faced living with epilepsy, as his parents detailed in an obituary published Jan. 20 about their dear son.

“Joe had always borne his condition graciously, calling it his ‘cross to bear’ and accepting the treatments and limitations it imposed, while determined not to let them impede a life lived to the fullest. He went to bed each night knowing there was a chance, even if only small, that he would not rise the next morning.”

And it was this intentional living that also brought this young man to the chapel the night before he died, a place he often came to spend time with Jesus in the tabernacle.

“On the last night of his earthly life, he joined his friends in chalking Epiphany blessings above every door in their residence hall, ebulliently singing Christmas carols along the way,” enjoying his college career within the halls of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, where Joseph was born and raised. 

“Later, after completing a work-study shift at the campus coffee shop, he came to the Chapel, where he prayed before the tabernacle until curfew.”

The family learned of “Joe’s death the next morning from an epileptic seizure” on January 16, 2026 inside his dorm at Thomas Aquinas College. 

It was on this campus that Joseph began to truly blossom, his parents recounted, having enrolled in the school during fall 2024. As he matured physically on the field, he made dear friends as they read the Great Books together, “treasuring profound conversations with his classmates and relishing all his classes, especially theology.”

It was in the arena of his Catholic faith where “Joe grew the most while at the College with daily Mass and nightly visits to the dorm chapel,” the obituary reads. 

He even challenged himself this winter, taking up “the Exodus 90 spiritual exercise and found himself drawn closer to God through the increased devotions and asceticism.”

And it was in these small, intentional acts that Joseph poured his strength into the most important relationship one can have, with Jesus. 

“Perhaps that’s why,” his parents mused, “inspired by his reading of St. Augustine’s reflections on death and salvation in Sophomore Theology — he worked so hard to foster the spirit of surrender that would prepare him to meet His Lord.”

Joseph’s family gathered at a wake Thursday to bid farewell to their beloved son and brother. Stories told through tears about his insatiable appetite for sports of any kind and how he was “blessed with a knack for listening and understanding others.” Friends and family remember how “he sang with the local homeschool choir, learned the guitar, and performed in two productions of the Santa Paula Junior Musical Theatre Company” and countless other memories. 

And as we keep Joseph and his family in our hearts and prayers today, may we also take a moment and remember this young man’s profound faith, borne from a family who spent every Sunday at St. Sebastian Catholic Church, where a young Joe “had taught dozens of younger boys how to serve Mass at the altar.”

May we be inspired to be as intentional as Joseph was and make time every day for Jesus, so one day when we are all called home, we can be “forever thankful for this preparation,” just as this young man’s parents are today.