My friend Joe West.

I was fortunate to know Joe for the last 13 years of his life. I live nearby and we hit it off the first time we met. Joe had that knack for greeting a total stranger with "And how are you this fine day?" and get a positive response. He had that crisp baritone voice that would have served him well as a public speaker; we initially called him "Mister Television" as his voice matched a TV personality that was popular at that time.

Joe had a remarkable life marred by a stint in an orphanage in his formative years. He never talked about it much, but we could tell it was difficult times for him, and it affected his entire life. He talked a lot about his youth working on cars, and just about anything that could be taken apart and fixed. He was tangled up in a race car project in Arizona. Joe was a thinker, and anything he tackled, he strove for excellence, and some of his projects got set aside, because if it couldn't be done right, it didn't get done.

Joe spoke with pride about his experiences in the military; he had excelled in every entrance exam they gave him, and he was given the choice of doing just about anything he wished in service to his country. I wish I had asked for more of his Army stories, as he obviously loved his work, but still grumbled about the Army. I had to laugh when he'd come over with a story about something, saying "They're doing it ALL WRONG". We'd hash it out and try to figure out why somebody would do it the way they did. He and Karen would take day trips all over the area and he would frequently bring us back some little solar powered toy for our window sill. Our favorite is a little pink pig with wings that flapp as his head bobs up & down "if pigs could fly..."

Joe was interested in everything. He guided me in the assembly of a model airplane kit, he had dabbled in radio controlled cars and was into high end audio equipment. He brought over a bunch of old WWII military maps and gave me the one for New York State (a precious keepsake). He was a computer buff, and appreciated things that were built way before his time. He got into digital cameras in a big way, but didn't do much photography; he just wanted to put together the best photo equipment that could be had, and he did it one piece at a time. He was always wandering over with some widget that could be repaired in my shop (and a story), and I built numerous bits and pieces for the computers he assembled. His dream was to put together an early BMW 2002 sedan like the one he had when he was younger. He found one that was complete and ran, and he spent hours and hours in his garage improving one little thing at a time. And by golly it was going to be right. He drove it around a little, but it needed some mechanical work that unfortunately he couldn't tackle because of declining health. He just couldn't get his hands to do what he wanted anymore.

Joe helped out at our yard sales as the "official greeter" (and secret security) and some stuff got sold just because he brought in somebody just wandering by. He was always stopping by, seeing if we needed any help with something. Even in his last months and weeks, when he was struggling to get around, he'd come over to thank me for some little thing I'd done, and volunteer to give me a hand if I needed it.

Joe was an intelligent man with a great big heart. I'm glad Karen found him, and he let me know how fortunate he was to find Karen. I'll miss him.