Joe G Mears was born in Levelland, Texas to Ida Mae and Joe Mears on January 18, 1928. He and his brother Dewey worked on the family farm picking cotton and as he would tell it "walking to school, uphill both ways, barefoot, in two feet of snow after milking all the cows." He enrolled in the Army ROTC program and graduated from Texas A&M in 1949 with a degree in Agronomy.
Joe served his country for twenty-seven years. He was a veteran of two wars – Korea (1951) where he was awarded two purple hearts, and Vietnam (1969) where he was a battalion commander. Joe was sent to Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas in 1962; returned to Korea in 1963; attended Tulane University from 1964-65 earning his Master’s in Business Administration; was stationed at the Pentagon working for the Comptroller of the Army from 1965 -72; his final tour was as Professor of Military Science at the University of Kansas from 1972-75.
Joe retired from the Army as a Colonel in 1975 and went to law school at the University of Kansas, graduating in 1978. After graduation, he moved to Fort Collins, Colorado where he practiced law for 15 years. Never one to just sit around, after Joe closed is law practice, he volunteered his time at his daughter Laura’s business, The Fig Leaf. There, Joe cut fabric, visited with customers, attended trade shows, and kept the store books. He was a constant fixture at The Fig Leaf for over 30 years and was still asking if he was needed at the store until a few weeks before his passing.
Joe married the love of his life, Miriam Cain, July 1, 1953. Two daughters came from this union – Angela in 1954 and Laura in 1957. Angela presented him with two granddaughters – Amanda in 1984 and Ariana in 1986. Amanda gave him great grandchildren – James in 2012, Jackson in 2014 and Sienna in 2019. Joe lived for his family, each generation holding a special place in his heart. You could see the pride and love in his eyes whenever his family was around.
Joe is survived by his wife, Miriam; daughter, Laura and her husband Rob Shotwell; granddaughters, Amanda Clark, Ariana Clark, and their spouses Joshua Willis and Dustin Gardner; and great grandchildren, James, Jackson and Sienna Willis. He was preceded in death by his daughter Angela.
