Joseph R. Meeks U.S. Navy (Ret.)

Services: A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, September 7, 2012 at 10:30 AM in Holy Face Catholic Church, Great Mills, MD with Father Joseph Calis officiating. Interment will follow in the church cemetery. Visitation: The family will receive friends on Friday, September 7, 2012 from 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM in Holy Face Catholic Church, Great Mills, MD. Lt. Joseph (Joe) R. Meeks, 86, of Leonardtown MD, died August 30, 2012 at St. Mary’s Nursing Center after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. Born March 11, 1926, in Jamaica, New York, he was the son of the late Robert E. Meeks and Caroline Kohr and was the elder brother to the late Alice Schmidt. Joe is survived by his wife Dorothy (Dot) A.Meeks of Leonardtown, MD whom he married on August 28, 1948 in Atlantic City, NJ. and by his two children and son-in-law: Eileen T. Meeks of Falls Church, VA, Shirley A. Poehnelt of Reston, VA and Dean Poehnelt of Reston, VA. Joe joined the Navy in July of 1943 during World War II, served in Vietnam, and retired in 1971. He loved weather forecasting and worked in a number of positions in the meteorological and oceanographic offices including weather forecaster and electronic technician. He was commissioned as an officer in 1960 and retired as a Lieutenant. While in the Navy he was assigned to a number of duty stations overseas spanning from Yokosuka Japan to Port Lyautey, Morocco and in the states from San Diego, CA to Quonset Point, RI. During his Naval Service, Joe Meeks received the following awards: Naval Achievement Medal, two National Defense Awards, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, two National Defense Medals, two Vietnam Service Medals, Republic of Vietnam Unit Citation Medal and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. After he retired from the Navy, Joe worked at Oceanographic Office at Naval Air Station Patuxent River until 1993. The family will receive friends on Friday, September 7, 2012 from 9:30AM to 10:30AM in Holy Face Catholic Church, Great Mills, MD. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10:30AM with Father Joseph Calis officiating. Interment will follow in the church cemetery. Serving as pallbearers will be Steve Vetter, Brian Vetter, "George" Dunn, Thomas Clayton, and Dean Poehnelt; serving as honorary pallbearer will be Lew Brown. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the USO, www.uso.org; St. Mary’s Nursing Center, 21585 Peabody St, Leonardtown, MD, 20650, www.stmarysnursingcenter.com; or Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, 513 E. Charles St, P.O. Box 1889, La Plata, MD 20646, www.alz.org. Arrangements provided by Mattingley-Gardiner Funeral Home, Leonardtown, MD.