Joseph Alfred Huard

Joseph Alfred Huard passed away peacefully at home October 30, 2014 at 86 years old. Survived by wife Maryann (married 58 years). Loving father of Steve (Rose), Vince (Lori), Nancy Pelton (Paul), Jeff (Melissa), Greg, and Dan (Diana). 13 grandchildren, 1 great granddaughter, sister Mary Morales, and many nieces and nephews. Joe was preceded in death by daughter-in-law, Suzie Johnston Huard.

Joe was born in Beebe Vermont in an apartment above a post office, this post office was actually in “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” for being the only post office that had one postmaster, but two doors and two postal counters, each serving customers from a different country USA and Canada. His parents were both Canadian but because the kids were born in the bedroom on the US side of the apartment this gave them the opportunity to choose citizenship. They chose them to be USA citizens. There Dad passed away while Joe was a young kid.

Joe was in the US Navy for a short stint in 1946 as a Fireman and Seaman. On the G.I Bill he then trained to be a mechanic. He travelled to Fairbanks Alaska where he was an expeditor of mail and auto parts for around six months. He served in the US Coast Guard as an Electrician for three years. After leaving the Coast Guard in Sept 1951 he ended up getting a job at the Ross Lake Dam in the North Cascades working in the Powerhouse for nine months. He joined Boeing where, after 36 years, he retired in 1988. He was an Electrical Mechanic mainly support Defense and Space, he worked on many projects but the notable ones were the lunar rover and missile defense. How many people can say they have their name on the moon? During testing of the lunar rover one of the astronauts stepped on the fender which then bent so he was assigned to fix it. While he was fixing it he decided to engrave his name into it. While working on missile defense he would have to travel to the Marshall Islands to test the missiles. He truly loved this part of the job. Several times his wife Maryann would fly over to Hawaii to meet him and they would have a wonderful vacation together. When they decided to move the testing of missiles to Alaska in the Aleutian Islands Joe really did not want to do this, so he came home and asked Maryann if he should retire. Up to this point he never talked about retiring. We all thought when he retired that he would take care of everything on his list within two years and have nothing to do. What ended up happening is he did not feel the pressure to get things done and he learned to take it easy. He worked on his list but the list never got any smaller. As soon as he removed something he would add something else. We truly believe retirement added many years on to his life.

Joe and Maryann were married in 1956. They bought their first home together but after having three kids and one on the way they needed a bigger place. They found their current property and had their current home built on it. Joe was always keeping busy working and fixing things around the house, he also volunteered many hours fixing and maintaining things for Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School. Joe was the only dad that ever received the Father of the Year at Church.

Joe and Maryann went on many road trips driving all across the country. They also went on many cruises. For the 50th anniversary they bought all the kids and grandkids tickets for an Alaskan Cruise, this was a wonderful event for the entire family. He also liked to go the casino and play the slots. Everyone would be amazed at how they could spend hours at slots and both would never spend much over $20 for hours of play.

Joe was truly a one of a kind person, Joe and Maryann raised a wonderful family and he is truly missed.

Viewing and Rosary at Yarington’s Funeral Home on November 6th at 3pm to 7pm with Rosary starting at 7pm.

Funeral Mass at Our Lady Of Lourdes church on November 11th at 11am with reception following at St. Thomas and interment to follow at Holy Rood. Instead of flowers – please donate to cancer research.