Joel's Bio

At the care center, they have little display cases outside the doorway to each room.  There is space available there to tell about the resident -- their life, interests and achievements, and to display little knick-knacks from their life.

My daughter Amy is decorating a little poster board with some applique's and I wrote a short bio for dad to include in the display.  (When it's done, I'll post a photo here.)

In the meantime, I thought it might be nice to publish the bio I wrote about dad here as well:

Joel Carpenter was born in May of 1935 in Evanston, Wyoming. He grew up as the youngest of 12 children.

He Served a Mission for the LDS Church to the Hawaiian Islands (Lucky Guy!) from 1955-1957. He learned the Hawaiian Language – in fact you may hear him still say a few phrases in Hawaiian even now! He continued to serve in the church throughout his life.

Joel Married Myra Hatch, from Randolph, Utah in October of 1957. They are the parents of 4 children and of 7 grandchildren.

Joel the served in the US Air Force from 1958-1962. He was stationed in Mississippi, Florida, Johnston Island (in the Pacific), and California.

Later Joel received training as an electronics technician, and worked at Tooele Army Depot for about 25 years. He would often have to travel for extensive periods of time with his work, which took him to Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, and to his beloved Wyoming.

Joel Retired from Civil Service in 1995. After his retirement, he and his wife, Myra, were able to make a cross-country trip in their motor home, which was always a life-long dream. Joel always liked tinkering with his motor home, and would always stay up on the latest in RV equipment and improvements.

Joel’s interests were many and varied. He enjoyed photography, and loved to develop and print his own pictures – he even built a darkroom in his basement! He enjoyed tinkering with and repairing electronics, and loved to listen to his shortwave radio. He took great interest in trains, especially locomotives. His dad was a fireman on locomotives, and his great-grandfather worked for the railroad, and was present when the Golden Spike was driven. Joel enjoyed traveling, and had an extensive collection of maps and guidebooks. He has visited all 50 of the United States. Joel loved classic movies, and over the years he collected hundreds of movies on video tape. He was quite a handy-man around the house. He did all of his own framing, drywalling , painting, plumbing and electrical work as he finished his basement.

Joel enjoyed oil painting. In fact, one of his paintings is hung here, on the wall of his room. Stop in and see it sometime!

Joel was always a kind and thoughtful person. He taught his children well, and is loved and respected by his family.

There was much more I could have included, but I had to keep it down to one page.  I hope dad would be pleased.