He entered Michigan State University in 1942 and joined the Naval ROTC. He received officer training at Notre Dame and Columbia Universities before being shipped in 1945 to serve in the US Pacific fleet with the rank of Ensign. Joe was assigned to PC-461 class submarine chasers, attaining his own command in 1946. In 1950 Joe entered the Yale University School of Drama where he met Elizabeth Garfield. They were married in 1952.
In 1961 Joe was hired to teach drama at Dillard University, a private historically black college in New Orleans, LA. While at Dillard, he earned a PhD in Drama from Tulane University. He left New Orleans in 1968 to create the new theatre department at Windham College in Putney, VT.
In 1971 he founded the Windham Summer Repertory Theatre, a professional company that attracted actors and designers from across the country. To honor the bicentennial in 1976, Joe wrote “The Equivalent Lands”, a play about the history of Dummerston and Putney at the time of the Revolutionary War. Many local people acted in the production including some descendants of actual characters in the play. The play was later revived to celebrate the 250th anniversaries of Dummerston and Putney, and directed by Elizabeth Greenhoe.
Joe is survived by his wife; a sister, Barbara Ann Leavitt of Lansing MI; three children, Eliza, of Dummerston, Barbara, of Bellows Falls, and Samuel, of Brooklyn, NY; and 5 grandchildren. The Ker-WESTERLUND FUNERAL HOME has been entrusted with arrangements. A graveside committal and open house will be held on May 24th.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18