Joseph Raymond English

Funeral Service for Joseph R. “Joe” English will be held at 10:30 Am Tuesday, December 1, 2020 in the West Venue at North Monroe Baptist Church with Dr. Bill Dye and Rev. Warren Eckhardt officiating. Interment will follow at 1:00 PM in Roark-Stewart Cemetery in Marion, LA.

Joe was born June 15, 1931 to parents, Jay and Lorene English in Crossnore, NC and passed away November 28,2020 at his home in Monroe with his family at his side.
Joe was raised on a dairy farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. He attended North Cove school for grades 1-12 then attended North Caroline State for 1 ½ years before joining the Air Force in 1950. Joe served as a Central Fire Control Gunner on a B-29 during the Korean War. Joe added a Protestant balance to a successful crew. He was asked to be part of an all Mormon crew because of the respect he earned in Gunner School. Aside from a crash landing on their ninth mission the crew made it safely through their required missions. When he came back stateside he trained as a boom operator on a KC-97 to refuel other planes in flight. While stationed at Barksdale AFB he met a beautiful young school teacher named Orel Lene Cooper. They were married March 3, 1955.
After his time in the Air Force he continued his education at Louisiana Tech. Joe Earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1958 and his Masters in 1961.
After completing his BS degree he worked for General Dynamics in Lone Star, TX where they operated a Wind Tunnel facility for the Navy. Upon completion of his MS degree they moved to Slidell, LA where he worked for Chrysler Corp. (NASA). While there he helped predict the in-flight performance of the Saturn-1B rocket booster for the Apollo Space Vehicle ( Gemini missions).
Joe and Orel Lene then moved to Monroe when Joe took a job as an Instrument Engineer at Ford, Bacon and Davis Engineering Co. in 1966. He quickly rose through the ranks until the mid 1980’s when he became the President of FB&D Louisiana and finally President of FB&D, Inc. He retired from Ford Bacon & Davis in September 1991.
Joe was ordained as Deacon at North Monroe Baptist Church in 1973 where he taught Sunday school for many years and chaired several committees. He has enjoyed traveling to all 50 states and numerous countries, especially riding his Goldwing to Alaska in 1999.They bought a farm with Orel Lene’s parents in 1966 where acreage was cleared and ponds built to enable raising cattle and horses, haying, hunting/fishing and dirt biking for many years.
Joe was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Mary Jane Street. Left to cherish his memory are his wife of 65 years, Orel Lene; 2 brothers, Frank Watson of South Carolina and John of North Carolina; 3 daughters Lora(JR) Fix, Jodi (Larry) Beach, Le Ann ( Kevin) Allen; 4 grandchildren, Jarrett (Lauren) Fix, Taylor ( Trevor) Hall, Joseph Tyler “JT” Allen and Jada Allen; 4 great grandchildren, Jude and Riggs Fix and Teegan and Taten Hall and numerous nieces and nephews.
Pallbearers will be JR Fix, Larry Beach, Kevin Allen, Jarrett Fix, JT Allen and Terry Parks. Honorary pallbearers will be Larry Brakefield, Jim Hood, Glen Yacher, Sr., Noah Case, Gene Parks and Joe Hudson.
Visitation will be held 9:00 AM until 10:30 AM Tuesday, December 1, 2020 at the West Venue of North Monroe Baptist Church.
The family would like to thank the staff and aides at Louisiana Hospice and Palliative Care, Dr Anders and Dr. Barrow.
Memorials may be made to the Daring Faith Campaign at North Monroe Baptist Church or the charity of your choice.