Joseph F. Dickrell, 92, passed away peacefully on December 6th, 2018 from natural causes. A true member of the ‘greatest generation’, he was born September 13th, 1926 on the family farm in St Anna, WI. to Mary and Arthur Dickrell.
In 1933, Joe and his four younger siblings were orphaned. The daunting prospect of raising five kids under seven (during the depression) proved too much for his grandparents and extended family, so Joe and his sibs were placed in St. Joseph’s Orphanage in DePere… Read More » WI. , run by the Catholic Church.
Joe remembers sneaking around at night checking in on his little sister and when he could, and saving coins to buy his little brother candy. Joe never had a bad word (didn’t have a lot of great words either) to say about his experience in St. Joseph’s but at age sixteen he was released from their care. He spent summers working in a canning factory.
At $. 50 an hour, he remembered feeling “rich as Rockefeller”. Accepted as a charity student at St. Norbert College’s high school, he boarded in a dorm attic and graduated in June of 1944, in the thick of WWII.
Not yet eighteen, he had a few months to survey his options for service. Joe chose to enlist in the U.S. Navy (“Kiddie Cruise”) as opposed to getting drafted. Joe spent the next five years in the Navy, achieving the rating of Petty Officer 2nd class (Quartermaster/Signalman).
After five years, Joe liked to say, “I was sick of the Navy and the Navy was sick of me”. He was discharged and returned to Wisconsin. He was able to attend Marquette University on the G.I. Bill and graduated in 1954 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering.
After college, Joe got a job as an ‘architectural field appraiser’ and traveled extensively. His extended family fondly remember Joe showing up to their houses on his Harley (125cc) or a conversion van (a 1934 Chevy panel van with a WWII cot and a chest of drawers), wearing a Stetson hat, sporting a beard (quite radical in the 1950’s) and a gold capped front tooth. Everyone remembers him as a great storyteller.
In 1956, Joe settled in the Chicago area. He joined a social group of twenty-somethings (the Fortnighters) in Elmhurst and courted his future wife, Jackie Zwickel. The two were married in May of 1958.
They bought a house in Naperville, IL at 311 Redbud Dr., where they resided the remainder of their lives. In 1959 their first child, Thomas, was born and after that, three others, Susan, Robert, Jeffrey. Joe’s career settled with his family.
After a stint with the Bechtel Corp. building Dresden, the first commercial nuclear power plant near Morris IL. Joe went to work with Wight and Co. Engineering firm in Downers Grove.
The current president, Mark Wight said of Joe, “He was a terrific man, a great mentor and an excellent engineer. He was also a wealth of fantastic stories”. After nearly 20 years at Wight, Joe moved to the public sector becoming the Assistant City Engineer for West Chicago.
When asked why, after sixteen years there, he never pursued the City Engineer position, he replied that he didn’t want to get into the “political realm”, he just wanted to be an engineer. It would be difficult to drive around the western suburbs without passing by one of his designs. In the mid-1980’s, Joe and Jackie became ‘empty-nesters’ when all four children had graduated college and moved on.
When his wife unexpectedly died in 1995, Joe stayed in the house and retired the next year. His retirement years were spent reading and learning. He loved WWII history, early Hollywood biographies and genealogy.
He was a prolific collector of information and letter writer. In 2002, his oldest son Thomas (Eva) died. Joe was loved and respected by his neighbors and their children.
He was a charter member of St. Raphael’s Catholic Church and never missed Mass. His final months were spent in assisted living. He was very well cared for and passed very peacefully and very loved.
Joe is survived by three of his children, Susan Lipsey (Michael), Robert Degrell, Jeffrey Dickrell (Nancy) and (as Papa Joe) six grandchildren, Mika and Kaia Machalek, Brooke and Donnie Lipsey and Alexandra and Xavier Degrell and (as Uncle Joe) to numerous nieces and nephews. A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Raphael’s Church in Naperville, at 12pm, Tuesday Dec. 11, Interment Saints Peter & Paul Cemetery.
Joe’s family has asked that donations be made in his memory to Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, Chicago www.
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