Joseph Ross Lourey Sr.

b. June 8, 1940, in Minneapolis, MN d. Sept 13, 2022 at camp in Burnham Maine

He was Ross to anyone who knew him growing up in Minnesota, and Joe to anyone who knew him as an adult.

Joe attended the University of Minnesota, where he met his wife Jeanne. He left to

serve active duty in the US Navy at Alameda Naval Air Base, San Leandro, California, during the Vietnam War. After completing his service, he received his BA in Accounting from Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA under the GI Bill.

Joe was a CPA whose work in bank auditing and trouble-shooting took him to Illinois, Tennessee, and Maine. He left banking for private industry in Maine, setting up the new-fangled thing called computers with a food services company and with North Anson Reel, a lumber company. He retired from North Anson Reels’s Florida division in 2002. He has wintered in Sarasota, Florida since then.

Through his life Joe pursued his interest in woodworking, building furniture and cabinets for his own home and those of his children. He pursued other handcrafts as well, especially devoting himself to wheel-thrown raku and glazed pottery after his retirement. A glaze he developed is used by Unity Pond Pottery as their Sedona Red.

His other great passion was cooking. From his childhood on, he has delighted family and friends with his skills in everything from authentic Chinese cuisine to homemade sausage to his Fire-eater’s Chili.

In the 1970s, he and his family built a log house in Maine where they raised a big garden and St. Bernard dogs. After retirement, he purchased and rebuilt a derelict camp on Unity Pond in Burnham Maine, where he and his wife have summered now for 20 years.

At least, when they were not traveling. Highlights of their many trips abroad were botanical group trips to China’s Yunnan Region and to Sikkim, his nephew’s wedding in Hanoi VietNam, the Galapagos Islands, and the upper Amazon River.

Joe is survived by his wife Jeanne, daughters Jennifer Chisum and Mike Chisum, of Oakland ME; Renee Arbisi and Mark Arbisi of Biddeford ME, and son Joseph Lourey III and Suzanne Beaulieu of Sarasota FL; and by his grandchildren Madeleine Chisum, Kanna Gunma, Japan, and Patrick Chisum, Orono, ME, and step-grandaughter Jessica Arbisi, Bangor ME.

He is also survived by his sister Jill Middlecamp and Bill, Apple Valley MN, and his brother Scott Lourey, Caldwell Idaho, and many nieces and nephews.

There are no services at the present time. Joe desired that next year on his birthday, a memorial service be held at his camp in Maine, and his ashes scatted along with his two devoted camp dogs, Dogbert and Beau, on the gardens.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.VeilleuxFuneralHome.com for the Lourey family.