Joseph Graham Gamble Jr.

Joseph Graham Gamble, Jr. was born in Des Moines, Iowa on June 12, 1926 and died from complications related to COVID-19 on September 25, 2020. Jane W. Gamble, his wife of 38 years, his parents Joseph Graham Gamble and Ella Theolian Hildreth Gamble, his brother Christopher and sister Elizabeth Gamble Davis predeceased him.

He is survived by his nephews Philip Christopher Davis (RoseMary) of Montgomery, George Graham Davis of Birmingham, Joseph Gamble Davis (Anna) of Eugene, Oregon, James Conrad Davis (Jennifer) of Birmingham, and John Edward Davis (Liz) of Williamsburg, Virginia, five great nieces and nephews including his God-daughters Jennifer Elizabeth Davis (Eike Bierwirth) of Wiesbaden, Germany and Katherine Rebecca Davis (Creighton Tynes) of Coker, Alabama, five great-great nieces and nephews, and several cousins including his father’s and his namesake, Joseph Graham Gamble II.

Until 1937, he lived full time in Des Moines, where his father practiced law from 1916 until his death in 1946. In 1937 his parents, who were raised in Alabama, bought a retirement home near Monticello, Florida, and he and they lived there part of each year until his father’s death. He attended public elementary schools in Des Moines and Monticello, was graduated from high school at Riverside Military academy in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1944 from the University of Florida in 1948, and from the University of Alabama Law School in 1950, where he served on the Law Review.

Joe practiced law in Birmingham at Spain, Gillon and Young from 1950 until 1960, at

Liberty National Life and Torchmark Corporation from then until 1986, serving as their Corporate Secretary from 1976 until 1986 when he retired, and as a solo practitioner until 1998. He was an active member of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association. He was among the eleven Alabama and Iowa lawyer descendants of his grandfather John Gamble, who was admitted to practice law in Alabama in 1871.

He was a member of the chapters of Phi Gamma Delta at the Universities of Florida and Alabama, serving on the Alabama chapter’s House Corporation, and a member of St Andrew’s Society of the Mid-South.

He was a lifelong Episcopalian, active in St. Mary’s-on-the-Highlands as a Sunday School teacher, member of the Outreach Committee and the vestry, Junior and Senior Warden.

He served as a director and President of the Travelers’ Aid Society in Birmingham, a United Way agency, and as a director of the Birmingham Hospitality Network (now known as Family Promise), which hosts homeless families for a week, on a rotating basis among a network of a synagogue and fourteen churches.

He spent most of his career as a desk lawyer writing, reading or commenting on documents. His hobby of model trains offered a complete change of pace, allowing him to enjoy building and operating a layout depicting a part of Alabama in 1915, and to serve as an active member of the National Model Railroad Association and its Southeastern Region.

He thanks his family and friends, especially Jim and Jennifer Davis, Katie Davis and Creighton Tynes, Beth Davis and Eike and Claire Bierwirth for their support, care, and love. The family would also like to thank his recent caregivers, Roderick Gardner and Jermina and most especially Sherita Mines, for their support, care and bravery for caring for him so selflessly and lovingly.

The family will have a private memorial service at St. Mary’s-on-the-Highlands Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, memorials to St. Mary’s-on-the-Highlands

Episcopal Church, the John Gamble Family Scholarship at the University of Alabama Law School; P.O. Box 870382; Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0382, the United Way, or a charity of your choice would be appreciated.