Joseph P. Stephenson

Joseph Stephenson was born on March 20, 1931 in Hutchinson, Kansas. He was the third child of Clair Ellen and M.E. "Steve" Stephenson. He attended St Teresa Catholic School and Hutchinson High School. After high school, Joe joined the U.S. Air Force as an aircraft mechanic and was assigned to Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas. It was there that Joe met his wife, Sharon Joy Thompson. They were married on May 28, 1955 at St Joseph Catholic Church and began their life together in El Paso.

After serving in the Air Force for 4 years, Joe began a 35-year career with Mountain Bell Telephone (Southwestern Bell, AT&T). Although holding a number of positions with the Mountain Bell, the majority of his time was spent installing, maintaining and repairing large electronic phone switching equipment and PBX systems. Upon his retirement from AT&T, Joe spent several years as a private consultant providing oversight and maintenance of PBX and telephone systems for several large clients in the El Paso area, including the El Paso Independent School District and the Ysleta Independent School District. Joe retired for good in 1998. Joe and Sharon moved to San Antonio in 2006.

Joe was a devoted family man, choosing to spend most, if not all, of his non-working time with his family. He could frequently be seen playing games with his children and their neighborhood friends.

Joe loved the outdoors. He frequently took his family camping, exploring the mountains of New Mexico and Northern Arizona. It was during these camping trips that Joe discovered and fell in love with the town of Ruidoso, New Mexico. Upon his retirement, Joe and Sharon bought a small cabin and split their time between El Paso and Ruidoso. They continued to spend their summers in Ruidoso after their move to San Antonio.

Joe had many hobbies and interests. He was a talented artist. Several of his paintings and drawings decorated the walls of his home. Joe was an avid woodworker and exceptional craftsman. His skill and precise attention to detail was exhibited in the many fine decorative pieces he created for his home and those of his children. In fact, he once spent several months in his workshop designing and building exquisitely detailed scale dollhouses to give to his daughters as Christmas gifts.

Joe was the consummate do-it-yourselfer. He was always working on one home improvement project after another, well before it became fashionable to do so. He had this uncanny ability to diagnose and repair almost anything. Family, friends and neighbors would often call on Joe first whenever things didn't work quite right. Joe was a rabid San Antonio Spurs fan.

Joe is survived by his wife of 60 years, Sharon; daughters Patricia and her husband Paul Tenner, and Catherine Reed, of San Antonio, Texas, Karen Jones and her husband Michael of Driftwood, Texas, and Amy Stephenson of Austin, Texas; sons Tom and his wife Delia of Austin, Texas, and Jerry and his wife Kim of El Paso, Texas; grandchildren Jessica, Jeanette, Ryan, Samantha, Kirsten, Lauren, Nicole and Elise Stephenson, Kristopher Kassner, Aaron and Kelly Tenner, Mason Jones and Ian Reed; great-grandchildren Alyssa and Xavier Hernandez; brothers Edward "Bud" Stephenson of Hutchinson, Kansas, and Jerry Stephenson of Rye, Colorado; sister Judy Theriot of Hutchinson, Kansas; and numerous nephews, nieces and close friends. Joe was preceded in death by his parents, brother Milford "Whitey" Stephenson, and son-in-law William Reed.

The family will receive friends from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 31 at Porter Loring Mortuary, 1101 McCullough, San Antonio, Texas, with a rosary service following at 6:30 p.m.

The funeral Mass will be held at St. Pius X Catholic Church, 3303 Urban Crest Drive in San Antonio at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, April 1. Interment at Ft Sam National Cemetery will follow the Mass.