Joseph Thomas Frase

Joseph Thomas Frase was born in Camden, Delaware in 1931, one of nine children to Theodore and Marie Frase. Growing up in Dover, Joe found joy in playing baseball, football, golf, ping-pong and pool. He also hunted, fished, and played drums in the Dover High School band. Joe and his friend Jim McWilliams pulled together a 12 piece swing band and their group went on to win a state talent show. The boys played dances, nightclubs, high school proms, and even a riverboat cruise in the Chesapeake Bay, before breaking up in 1949 since half of their musicians were bound for college.

Joe was offered a football scholarship to the University of Delaware but chose instead to enlist in the U.S. Air Force to see the world outside of Delaware. He served a 16-month tour in the Korean War as a radar technician. There he maintained both search radar and radar that directed B52s from Okinawa to their targets in Korea. Near the end of his time in the Air Force, he was stationed at Mount Laguna, east of San Diego, California. There he operated radar that was part of an early warning system developed to detect enemy aircraft from six to eight hundred miles away.

After returning from Korea, Joe returned home to Dover and proposed to his high school sweetheart, Jessie Eleanor Phillips. They were married in October of 1952 and Joe completed his service in the Air Force in 1953. Then in 1956, Joe and Eleanor welcomed the arrival of their son, Jeffery Thomas Frase.

In 1959 Joe graduated from San Diego State with a Bachelor's of Science in Electrical Engineering and began his career at Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company. His job took the family to San Francisco, Chicago, and back to San Diego. Joe was promoted throughout the years, and was responsible for outside construction and engineering for large parts of California.

In 1970, their family welcomed the new addition of daughter, Laurie Beth Frase. Then in 1984, Joe retired early to care for his wife Eleanor, who was diagnosed with cancer. They enjoyed their life together in San Diego until her death in 1992.

A long time member of Living Water Lutheran Church, Joe passed away peacefully at home on July 13th, 2023 at the age of ninety-one. He is survived by his second wife, Virginia Kaplan Frase, his son Jeffery and daughter Laurie Beth, and his four grandchildren, Sarah, Rachel, Luke, and Sam.