Joe Royce Taylor

Joe Royce Taylor was born in Paducah, Texas, July 22, 1943, to Mack Arlas Taylor and Juanita Birtie McGowen. He went to elementary, junior high, and high school in Dumas, Texas, where he played baseball from Little League through high school. He also played basketball; his senior year he played for the Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins, who led the team to the Texas final four. Joe graduated from Baylor University with a degree in accounting and then spent three and a half years in the Army, first as an enlisted soldier before he received a direct commission in the Finance Corps, finishing his Army service as a First Lieutenant. He then earned his MBA from the University of Utah, having started the program while in the Army in Germany.

While in Germany, he met and married Emily Ruth Dusenberry, an elementary teacher at the Army Post where Joe was stationed, who had grown up in Oregon. Having spent a summer in Oregon after leaving Germany, they decided to make their home and raise their family in Portland. Joe earned his CPA certificate and worked for several years at accounting firms before he decided to make his career in accounting software, which was just being developed with the introduction of computers.

He started a company, Micro Accounting Systems, selling and supporting business software, which he maintained for the next 30 years with offices in Portland, Seattle, and for a few years in Mission Viejo, California. Over that time the company served more than 300 companies, most of them in the Pacific Northwest, and the software company he owned, AddonSoftware, had more than 2,000 customers across the United States.

Starting in high school and continuing throughout his life, Joe always played guitar and wrote songs. During college he played in a band and after graduating from Baylor, he worked for a time for a recording company, where he released one record and wrote songs recorded by other artists. But then the military draft was about to get him, so he joined the Army, and after that making music dropped down his priority list as life took over.

Joe and Emily had three children – Amy in 1974, Molly in 1978, and Brennan in 1979. One of Joe's greatest joys was coaching the two younger children's basketball teams which he did for seven years. Amy was a champion dancer, a sport he could not coach but only watch with wonder and appreciation. He also had two stepsons – Gloria’s boys – Nathan and Jered. He was so proud of the accomplishments of all five of the children.

After 27 years together, the marriage with Emily dissolved in 1995 and Joe moved to Seattle for the next 20 years. There he later connected with Gloria, a longtime close friend of the family who had also become single after a long marriage. He said many times how lucky he was that Gloria agreed to spend the second half of her life with him. If there is such a thing as a soulmate, he was sure Gloria was his. They moved back to Portland from Seattle in 2015 to be closer to her family.

Joe is survived by Gloria, his brother Carl Allison of Herndon, VA, his sister Patsy of Dumas, TX, his three children Amy (Peter) of Berkeley, CA, Molly (Adam) of San Mateo, CA, and Brennan (Linnea) of Brooklyn, NY, two stepsons Nathan (Sarah) and Jered (Shahleena), both of Portland, and nine wonderful grandchildren: Dahlia and Penelope, Bobby, Edie, and Logan, Sylvia and Lumi, Oakley, and Ila.

Joe's ashes are interred at Finley-Sunset Hills Memorial Park on Sylvan Hill in Portland. He invites you to come and visit anytime.

A celebration of life is being planned for this fall. Sign up below (click the Get Reminders button) to be notified when arrangements are made.