Joseph Louis "Joe" Norton, 94, of Matthews, NC, passed away peacefully on June 2, 2025 surrounded by his loving family at the Levine-Dickinson Hospice House in Charlotte.

Joe was born in Elmira, NY, in 1931 to Mary and Leo Norton. He had three brothers and a twin sister. He graduated from Elmira Free Academy in 1949, where the caption under his senior yearbook photo read: "Joe's a lad who takes things as they come. He never worries and has lots of fun."

After graduating from high school, Joe earned an associate's degree in engineering at Erie County Technical Institute in Buffalo, NY. He later attended Syracuse University. Joe was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War and served proudly from 1952 to 1954 rebuilding tank and truck engines in Germany and France after initially being stationed in Georgia and Texas. After he left the Army, he returned to Elmira, began working as an industrial engineer and eventually met Mary Anne Richard through a Young Catholics social group at church. He had briefly dated her younger sister Cathy, but Cathy decided he would be a better fit for Mary Anne. He was, and Joe and Mary Anne were married in 1958 in a double ceremony with Cathy and her husband Dan. They were married for 67 years until Mary Anne died just days before Joe, on May 21, 2025.

Over the years, Joe worked at Westinghouse and Ingersoll Rand in Western NY, before he moved to North Carolina to work first at Crompton & Knowles and later at Imo Pump, from which he retired at the young age of 70.

Joe was a dedicated husband and was also the ultimate boy dad - with six sons in nine years he had to be. He was generally unflappable in the midst of chaos. One family story involved an aunt arriving at the house while Joe was in charge to discover one child pouring flour onto the floor in the kitchen while the others ran riot and Joe peacefully watched TV. He did have a breaking point, though, as at least one child discovered when he tried to change the TV channel to wrestling while Joe was watching the news. He gladly took on the duties of wrangling food orders for the kids, often telling about the shocked faces made by McDonald's clerks when he'd walk in and order two dozen hamburgers. He seldom got his own ice cream cone but instead got his portion by going down the line of boys and licking the ice cream drips off of multiple cones. He also frequently handled the chow line at home.

Joe believed in maintaining and repairing possessions rather than buying things that were new and shiny. He saw no reason to buy fancy new cars, to the chagrin of some of his children who requested they be dropped off a distance from school so they would not be seen in whatever "it still runs fine" vehicle he was driving at the time. He took on the repair projects around the house, including tackling home and car repairs, building a screened porch, and later helping assemble swing sets and bikes for grandchildren.

Joe was always a big sports fan, with football and golf his favorites. He continued to golf and bowl until he was nearly 90. Along with Mary Anne he attended hundreds of sporting events for first his children and then his grandchildren. He was a wonderful grandfather who always had a smile and a listening ear for his grandkids and was never impatient with them. HIs ability to sit quietly in the midst of chaos, occasionally throwing out a quiet wisecrack, served him well as the family grew.

One of his biggest contributions to the ever-expanding family beach trips was to be the butt of jokes about the fact that he sat on the porch in mid-summer wrapped in a sweater regardless of the 90-degree heat and the high humidity. He also had to stay in the shadows until late afternoon because, as a former redhead, it only took a few minutes of sun for his skin to burn bright red.

Joe's Catholic faith was always important to him, despite the fact that as a child he mortified his future-nun twin sister by leaving the classroom at their Catholic elementary school through the window when he felt he'd been there long enough. He was a faithful attendee at mass, served on various boards in a variety of parishes in both NY and NC, and logged many volunteer hours in activities such as calling bingo numbers.

After he retired, Joe and Mary Anne traveled to visit friends and family, just for fun, and continued an active social life - he and Mary Anne were avid card players - that often made it hard for their children to catch them at home. Joe also took up drawing and painting and many of his family members are lucky enough to have some of his art in their homes.

Joe is survived by the large, loving, sports-obsessed family he and Mary Anne created. That includes his six sons and their wives: Rick and Kate of Fort Collins, CO; Tom and Jennifer of Raleigh, NC; Pete and Allyson of Burlington, NC; John and Kelly of Monroe, NC, Pat and Pam of Waxhaw, NC, and Mark and Karen of Mooresville NC; grandchildren Nikki (Sean), Joseph (Courtney), Casey (Mike), Alex, Sean (Erin), Vincent, Kennedy, Owen, Kate (Brandon), Evan, Will, and Allie; great-grandchildren Liam, Tucker, Nastasia, Gemma, Charlie, Tatum, Pearl, and Silas. He is also survived by his twin sister, Sister Julia Norton and many nieces and nephews.

In addition to his wife, Joe was preceded in death by his brothers and sisters-in-law Leo "Red" and Stella Norton; Victor and Marjorie Norton, and Bill and Mary Norton.

Joe has left behind as his legacy a family that values marriage, family, hard work, and large family gatherings with huge amounts of food. Scattered amongst his children and grandchildren are a number of "mini-me"s who have his walk, his smile, his dry sense of humor, his belief in not using more words than necessary - and his hairline.

A joint service honoring Joe and Mary Anne will be held at 11:00 am on June 9, 2025, at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Monroe. A reception will follow at Hilltop Restaurant in Monroe (1602 E. Roosevelt Blvd).

Donations to Sisters of Mercy - Food Cupboard (1437 Blossom Rd, Rochester, NY, 14610) or to your favorite veterans' organization are beautiful ways to honor Joe's memory.

Holland Funeral Service is serving the Norton family.