Joe Vogelbacher

A brewery co-owner, a father of a newborn, a little brother to a sister who is battling cancer, and a reservist who just got called to serve overseas.

- Jodie Valade

JOE VOGELBACHER grew up in Charlotte and always has been close to his family. So it’s no surprise that several years after starting a construction company in New Jersey, he moved back here. In part, it was to be closer to his sister, Michelle, after he learned in 2011 that she had bile duct cancer, or cholangiocarcinoma. But he also had an opportunity to help start Sugar Creek Brewing Co. with some old Charlotte Catholic High School buddies. It didn’t take him long to decide to sell his company and return to North Carolina.

Vogelbacher’s sister was cancer-free for about five years until early in 2016, when they learned it had returned. Just a few months later, he received orders that he would be activated from the Navy reserves. He’ll spend a year in Afghanistan on an Individual Augmentee (temporary duty) assignment with the Army.

Vogelbacher left late this past summer, saying goodbye to his wife, three children under the age of 6, his sister undergoing chemotherapy, and his brewery. We talked to him before he left. Here he is in his own words (edited for clarity and space).

I STARTED MY CONCRETE form business in 2007 in New Jersey and was doing really well. Then the 2008 stock market crash happened. It was fine at first, but it started trickling down to real estate in New York City and eventually I lost my top five biggest accounts. I had about 30 employees and I had over 100 vendors, and I was losing a big portion of my business.

ON SUNDAY NIGHT, I’d start having these panic attacks. It’s embarrassing to say because I’ve been through a lot of stress and gone through military school and all that stuff, but I was starting to wonder, how am I going to pay my vendors? Who am I going to lay off? I couldn’t sleep and I felt sick to my stomach.