Joe Howard Sigler

Joe Sigler was born in Harrisville, WV, on January 4, 1934, son of Howard T. and Mattie Maness Sigler. He graduated from Harrisville High School in 1951 and studied accounting at Mountain State College in Parkersburg. But he soon recognized that he had more talent for words than numbers, and before graduating from Mountain State he began working as a reporter for The Parkersburg News in 1953.

In the fall of that year, he entered the U. S. Navy where he attended journalism school and volunteered for two trips to Antarctica to help cover scientific expeditions for the Navy as part of the International Geophysical Year. After the Navy, Joe attended West Virginia University and graduated in 1961 with a BS degree in journalism. From 1961-1965 he worked for the Charleston Daily mail, covering South Charleston city government and later state government. From 1965-67 he covered city hall for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

In 1967 he became the Duke University Medical Center’s first director of public relations and served there until 1979 when he joined The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston where he was vice president for public affairs and university editor. He retired there to live in Tallahassee in 1995, but then worked for four years as communications director at Trinity United Methodist Church.

Joe received top national work-related awards from the American College Public Relations Association (now CASE), the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Hospital Association, (a MacEachern Award).

He was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia Gilbert Sigler, to whom he was married in Duke University Chapel in 1970, and passed in August 2023; and, his stepdaughter, Diana (Didi) Dieterich of Spicewood Texas who passed in November 2021. Pat and Didi brought great joy and love into his life, and their memories remained a source of strength for him. Also, preceding Joe in death was his brother Bob Sigler of Albright, WV.

Survivors include two sons, Dan of Fort Myers, FL, and Chris of Brenham TX, his wife Julie, and their children, Alex and Anna. His stepdaughter, Tracy Vaughan of Fort Lauderdale and her children, David, wife Erin and their daughter, Josephine of Westminster, CO; Katy Dunaway of Lewisville, TX; and Eli Dunaway of Tallahassee, FL. His son-in-law, Dirk Dieterich of Durango, CO, and his children Cody, his wife Rachel, and their daughter Declan of Austin, TX; and Mica Dieterich, of San Francisco; and brother-in-law, Terry Joe Chapman of Crawfordville, FL.

A memorial service will be held at Culley’s MeadowWood Funeral Home and Memorial Park, 700 Timberland Rd, Tallahassee, FL. The date is to be determined. Final details will be posted at dignitymemorial.com.

He asked to be cremated and that his ashes be scattered in the hills of his native West Virginia where they would be blanketed by snow in winter, the season he loved best.

Memorials in Joe’s name may be made to the Gen Thomas M. Harris School Museum, 217 West Main St. Harrisville, WV 26362