July 16, 2007|By Laura McCandlish | Laura McCandlish,Sun Reporter
Joseph Louis Kosojet, a retired IRS auditor who served on the team that investigated former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and former Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel, died of kidney failure Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. The Timonium resident was 90.
Born to Czech immigrants in the family's Washington Street home in Baltimore, Mr. Kosojet had seven older sisters. He attended St. Wenceslaus Roman Catholic School and enjoyed working as a water boy for his brother-in-law, Samuel "Joe Dundee" Lazzara, a world welterweight boxing champion.
After he graduated from Polytechnic Institute in 1934, Mr. Kosojet found a job at the Sparrows Point shipyard. He worked there through World War II as an engineer's assistant.
In 1941, Mr. Kosojet married Lillian Staska, a medical secretary at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Mrs. Kosojet, who also came from a Czech family, met her future husband at a party when she was 16.
Mr. Kosojet began night school at the Johns Hopkins University as he joined the Internal Revenue Service full time in the late 1940s. He earned his undergraduate degree in accounting and then received a law degree from the University of Baltimore. Though he passed the state bar exam in 1960, Mr. Kosojet remained at the IRS, focusing on tax law.
"Until he died he would not talk about those investigations," his daughter Christine Pierorazio said of her father's work. "He didn't give us much detail. It was a very sensitive thing."
His work involved high-profile cases, including the investigations of Agnew and Mandel, his family said.
When he retired from the IRS as chief of audit for the Baltimore region in 1977, Mr. Kosojet worked for two more years on an investigative task force headed up by Maryland Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs. The task force investigated the Maryland Port Authority and Medicaid fraud, Mrs. Pierorazio said.
For the next two decades, Mr. Kosojet and his wife spent their winters around Fernandina Beach, Fla. He was an avid golfer and jogged most days until he neared his 80th birthday.
Mrs. Kosojet cared for her husband of 65 years in their Timonium home as he suffered from dementia for the past 10 years. He remained an important part of his family's lives.
"He always had a hug for us and a smile," said Mrs. Pierorazio, who lives in Towson.
A funeral Mass is scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity, 20 E. Ridgely Road, Timonium.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Kosojet is survived by another daughter, Barbara Handy of Forest Hill; a sister, Helen Hirt of Bel Air; and five grandsons. A son, Joseph G. Kosojet, died in 1995.
laura.mccandlish@baltsun.com
