Person:Joseph Coleman (21)

About Joseph "Joe" Coleman

Joseph Dennis "Joe" Coleman was born 17 February 1942 in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, the youngest of the ten children born to John David Coleman (1895-1962) and his wife Elizabeth Mary Demars (1901-1965). His father was a former grocery operator and superintendent for a local creamery.

Joe began working in his father's two retail mild stores at the age of nine. The stores carried milk, cheese, eggs, butter and bread and Joe filled thw cases with product and waited upon the customers. When he was 12, Joe's family moved to California, where they settled in Panorama City in the San Fernando Valley. Here Joe graduated from the San Fernando's Alemany High School in 1960, where he maintained a B+ average, was head cheerleader and was active in drama. After his graduation, Joe spent six months on active duty in the United States Army Reserves, training at Ft. Ord, California and Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri. As a demolition expert with the Combat Engineers, Joe's job was blowing up tree stumps to clear ground to build an airfield. He also trained with anti-personnel mines and turned down an offer to spend four years in the African jungles on an Army demolition project.

After his stint in the Army, Joe re-joined Hughes Markets in 1961 on a full-time basis as the Deli Manager at the Mission Hills store. Eight months later he was transferred to his original store in Panorama City, where he served for the next two years before being assigned to the Hughes Van Nuys store. Joe, who was being groomed for bigger things was given the responsibility of handling the order desk at headquarters and was promoted to Deli buyer in November, 1964.

While working at Hughes Markets, Joe was an active member of the Southern California Deli Council, which later was re-named to the Dairy/Deli/Bakery Council of Southern California (DDBC), a local Food Industry Trade Association, and attended many of its meetings, seminars and functions. Joe joined the Deli Council in 1965 and was elected and served on the Board of Directors in 1968 and was awarded the Deli Council's "Big Cheese" Award in March 1968 for his leadership and support of the Council. He also served as the Chairman of the second Deli School in 1968 (later re-named the "Deli College of Knowledge").

Joe Coleman married to his wife Tina in 1967 and they had a daughter born in February 1968 named Angela Marie. He enjoyed cooking, hunting, fishing, reading historical novels and going to the movies each week. He passed away 24 April 1992 in Tuolumne, Tuolumne County, California and will be remembered fondly by his friends and co-workers in the food industry.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees: (Note: not considered a reliable primary source).

   http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/22715531/person/1291460868