Joseph E. Harvey, December 21, 2019, age 94.  Dear husband of 53 years of the late Carolyn Harvey.  Beloved father of Kathleen (Richard) Sawicki, Gregory (Cecilia Bidigare), Daniel, and Gail (Mark) Hurst.  Also survived by many loving grandchildren, nieces and nephews.  His ashes will be interred with his late wife at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in a private ceremony.  A memorial celebration of his life will take place in the spring at a date to be announced.

Joe Harvey was one of the best of the Greatest Generation.  His long and amazing life began in River Rouge, Michigan, where he was born in the family home in 1925, the fourth of five surviving children.  His family broke up in 1929, when he was 4, and he lived at St. Francis Home for Boys with his brother & lifelong best friend, John Harvey, until he was 12.  He worked selling newspapers & delivering groceries to help support his family from that time on.  He attended Visitation High School on a football scholarship along with his brother, John, and graduated a year ahead of his class in early 1942, just after the US entered WWII.  He enlisted in the army at the age of 17.  The army first assigned him to its Army Scholars program and sent him to engineering school at Virginia Tech and William and Mary; he also earned bomb disposal and artillery certifications during that time. When the scholars program ended, he volunteered as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division. He arrived in Europe after D-Day, but just in time for the Battle of the Bulge.  On VE Day, he was in Berchtesgaden, and was among the first US soldiers to enter Hitler's Eagle's Nest.  On VJ Day, he was on a leaking troop transport in route to Japan for the anticipated invasion.  Like many who served in combat in WWII, he said little to his family about the experience, other than to say they called him "Lucky Joe" because he survived despite being in some of the heaviest fighting.

After the war, he returned to Detroit and attended Lawrence Tech (Lawrence Technological University) on the GI Bill.  He graduated in three years with a BSEE degree.  While attending Lawrence Tech, he met his future wife, Carolyn, at a parish youth group picnic, in 1948, at Kensington Park.  He always told his children he was looking for the smartest girl there when he met their mother.  Joe and Carolyn married in 1951, and moved to Dearborn, Michigan in 1954, where they raised their four children.  He worked for 40 years as an engineer in the automotive industry, first for Ford Motor Company, and later at Volkswagen of America.  As he wished, he died while still living in the same home where he and Carolyn raised their much loved family.

His lifelong example of hard work and unfailing generosity, kindness and courtesy were an inspiration.  To the end of his life he always said that every day was a good day, and that you should have a little fun every day.  He loved to read, and was widely read and knowledgeable about many subjects.  He also enjoyed following college football, especially the University of Michigan Wolverines.  While soft spoken, he had a quick and wry sense of humor and was always very good company.  He leaves behind a family who loved him as much as he loved them, and he will be greatly missed.