Andrew R Joppa Sr

Andy was born in Yonkers, New York in 1942 and is the oldest of 5 children.

His father (Andrew) became First Sgt. for Audie Murphy’s unit in WW II when Murphy received his battlefield commission. Andy’s father won a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts, a source of pride for Andrew and his family.

Andrew’s mother’s family is French Cagean and old line Spanish from the bayous of Louisiana. Members of the family fought with Lafitte at the battle of New Orleans. His Great Grandfather, Octavius Carmadelle, was a steamboat captain on Mississippi. Andrew’s cagean roots are an important family legacy.

Andy is a Vietnam veteran, arriving there (Binh Thuy, Mekong Delta) just before the Tet Offensive in 1968. Andrew joined the Air Force, and while he participated in no battlefield heroics, the Binh Thuy Air Base where he was stationed had more enemy attacks than any air base in U.S. history. Andy left the Air Force as a Staff Sgt.

Andrew graduated from Mercy College, Summa Cum Laude. At the 50th Anniversary of Mercy College, Andrew was one of the original inductees into the Mercy College Hall of Fame, and at the 25th Silver Anniversary, Andrew was the winner of the Delta Mu Delta National Business Honor Society top graduate award at Mercy College.He also graduated With Distinction with a MBA from Long Island University.

Andy’s early career ambition was to become a professional baseball player. He was a catcher and played baseball in college, and even continued playing until he was forty in the recreation leagues. About his baseball career, Andrew says, “I couldn’t hit the high hard one, the 90+ mph fastball up in the strike zone.”

To this day, Andy is a passionate Yankee fan. He was on the stage at NY City Hall 1996 for the Yankee reception and received an award from Mayor Giuliani for being THE Yankee fan. Andy said, “my best friend was Giuliani’s closest friend and advisor. It was an incredible amount of fun.”

After several years as an adjunct faculty member, Andrew became a fulltime faculty member at Mercy College in the Business and Economics department. He was also a fulltime adjunct faculty member at SUNY Maritime.

Andrew designed, established and directed key programs for the college:

The EDGE: Undergraduate program in Organizational Leadership, and
The graduate program in Organizational Leadership

Both programs were opened at 5 different locations (Dobbs Ferry, NY, White Plains, NY, Yorktown Heights, NY, Bronx, NY and Manhattan, NY).

During his 25 year teaching career, Andrew was named “Faculty Member of the Year” five times before retiring in 2005.

Before Andrew joined joined the faculty at Mercy College, he had a business career in the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries.

While a faculty member at Mercy College, Andrew wrote a weekly newspaper column in the Peekskill (NY) Herald,”Correct Me If I’m Wrong.” He also wrote guest commentaries over a twenty-year period for the Gannett Westchester.

In addition, Andrew has pride in starting two high-impact, education reform groups (Partners in Education Reform in Peekskill, NY, and the 3-E Group of Lower Westchester). He was also the lead applicant for two charter schools in NY.

Andy is married to Kathleen, his wife of 40 years. Their oldest son, Andrew, is a labor lawyer in Providence RI. Their youngest son, Richard, passed in 1984 from a genetic problem.

Andy and his wife became full time residents Naples on the Paradise Coast in 2005. He still teaches an undergraduate Ethics course and a graduate-level Organizational behavior course online, and he is a guest lecturer on Ethics at Hodges University.

Andrew has been an active contributor to the community. He was the Project Manager for Holocaust boxcar at Holocaust Museum of SWFL. He currently is a Board member on the Council For Constitutional Principles and a frequent presenter on Constitution, Ethics, and the Holocaust. He’s also the sole author and creator of the blog, www.americanbrokenarrow.com, which is dedicated to resisting the use of judicial precedent to displace the founding principles of the Constitution. About the Constitution, Andy says, “I reach out and discuss the Constitution because America is in the final stage of a Constitutional crisis. Our Framers created a nation of law. The Constitution defined America but its authority has been diminished. We were not to be subject to the whims of a tyrant or the pressures of a majority. The Constitution prevented us from being subject to the “tyranny of today.”

In addition to his many interests, Andy is an avid tennis competitor, and he’s authored several books, his latest being “Josephus of Oz.”