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In Loving Memory Joseph Anton Blenkle, Jr. January 12, 1956 — February 17, 2026 Founder, Webmaster, and Curator of ColecoADAM.net · 1997–2026 |
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Joe Blenkle |
It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Joe Blenkle, the founder and longtime caretaker of this site. Joe passed away on February 17, 2026, at the age of 70, in Citrus Heights, California. For nearly three decades, Joe was the heart of the online Coleco ADAM community — the steady hand behind every page, every newsletter scan, and every multimedia disk archived here. Joe launched ColecoADAM.net in 1997 and tended it faithfully for the next 28 years. What began as one fan's passion for a short-lived 1983 home computer grew, under Joe's stewardship, into the definitive online home of ADAM history — preserving every issue of Expandable Computer News, cataloging the entire ADAM software library, hosting countless community-made multimedia disks, and giving ADAM owners around the world a place to gather, share, and remember. |
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A Life of Words and Devotion Joseph Anton Blenkle, Jr. was born on January 12, 1956, in Sacramento, California, the youngest of three children of Joseph A. Blenkle, Sr., and Afton Davis Blenkle. He grew up in North Highlands, earned his Associate of Arts in Business from American River College in 1979, and went on to graduate from California State University, Sacramento, with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in 1982. Following in his father's footsteps, Joe became a gifted and versatile writer — truly, as his family remembered him, a man of the written word. In 1987 Joe joined the Orangevale News and the Folsom Telegraph as Sports and Entertainment Editor — the job he called his dream. There he reviewed movies, stage productions, theater, and, of course, video games. It was a natural extension of the fascination that had begun in 1983, when Coleco launched the ADAM home computer and Joe fell, in his own words, into a lifelong passion for the machine that would come to define his community. Through the ADAM community Joe found one of his dearest friendships, with Dan Orlando, and built warm connections with hundreds of ADAM users around the world — many of whom he knew only through email, the Coleco ADAM Facebook group, and the comment boxes of this very site. To everyone who passed through these pages, Joe was a generous host: quick to scan a long-lost newsletter, archive a forgotten program, or answer a question about a thirty-year-old piece of hardware. |
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Family Joe is survived by his beloved wife, Sharlene — the love of his life, whom he first met at the Carmichael Athletic Club and courted with handwritten love notes she still cherishes today. Their first date was December 1, 1982; they were married on December 1, 1984, in South Lake Tahoe, and from that day on, they spoke or saw each other every single day until his last. He is also survived by their son Justin — whom Joe called his greatest legacy — his brother John and sister-in-law Terri, and his beloved cats Shadow, Rip, Katie Purry, Sofi, Toby, Graycie, Ziggy, Buttons, and Fauxby. |
Thank you, Joe, for nearly three decades of stewardship,
friendship, and love for the ADAM. |