JAMES WILLIAM "JOE" KENNEDY III

JAMES WILLIAM "JOE" KENNEDY, III, D.D.S., left us on Sunday, the 13th of September, 2009. He was 64 years old. Joe was born at The Nix Hospital in San Antonio on the 2nd of October, 1944 to Bernice Parker Kennedy and James William Kennedy, Jr. He grew up and lived life to its fullest in Houston, Texas.Joe graduated from Lamar High School in 1962. He then attended and graduated from Rice University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1967. He continued at Rice University in the post-graduate, doctoral program studying Physiology. During his doctoral studies he was privileged to work under Dr. Roy Talmage, a pre-eminent research scientist at Rice University, who was not only Joe's mentor but a friend. He received his PhD in 1971, completing his thesis in Bone Physiology: A Study of the Relationship of Phosphates to Calcitonin, an area of research that would greatly benefit him later in his career as a prominent Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon. He then received his dental education at Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas, Texas where he graduated in 1974. Joe concluded his academic career in the General Surgery Residency program at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas where he focused on Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He began his private dental practice in Houston in 1978. Those fortunate friends and colleagues that had the pleasure of studying with him during any of his academic milestones all say that he was the smartest guy in the room often frustrating them because he never took notes, he just remembered everything, literally.He began his distinguished career as an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in the Rosewood Hospital Professional Complex seeing surgical patients at Rosewood Hospital in Houston as well as many other hospitals in the medical center. At Rosewood he gained lifelong friends among his fellow medical colleagues and hospital staff. For the next thirty-two years, Joe practiced his trade in Houston, Katy, Copperfield and Sealy, Texas. He was certified by the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. His dental career allowed him to not only work with the best and smartest minds in the Houston area but it also allowed him to take care of patients who were also being treated by many of his closest friends forging lifelong relationships. Those fortunate doctors and staff that had the privilege and pleasure of practicing medicine with Joe, or Dr. Joe as they called him, all agree that he was the smartest, most talented, most gifted surgeon and friend they knew. Most people agree that he was one of the finest, if the not the finest, Oral Surgeons this dental community has ever known. As for the patients that had the privilege of calling Dr. Joe their doctor, they often said he had hands of magic and a bed side manner that made everyone in the room comfortable. He performed his last surgery on September 11, 2009.He was preceded in death by his parents. Joe is survived by: his wife, Charla; his children, James Max Kennedy and wife Alexis, Jennifer Marie Kennedy Stovall and her husband Michael Stovall; Charla's children, Cindy Taylor and Jim Taylor, who loved him as a father; five beautiful grandchildren, James Max Kennedy II, Sophia Dylan Kennedy, Chloe Grace Kennedy, Max Stephen Stovall and William Ernest Stovall; brother, Ross Parker "Biff" Kennedy, Sr. and wife, Carol Taylor Kennedy; nephews Ross Parker Kennedy, Jr. and his wife Jennifer Johnson Kennedy, Andrew Kitrell "Kit" Kennedy.Joe was an avid outdoorsman and he loved Texas. He was an eagle scout as was his father. He loved nature and he loved to conquer it. Throughout the course of his life he learned and mastered scuba diving, snow skiing, canoeing, camping, hunting, fishing, farming, ranching and grape growing, just to name a few. If he wasn't in the operating room, its safe to say he was outside enjoying nature, more than likely on his ranch in Catspring, his home away from home. Throughout the course of his life he traveled to many different places and experienced many different people. Most importantly in his life however, was his love of Texas and his love of traveling in Texas. He has been to every National and State Park in Texas. He knew Texas history better than anyone at the table because he loved it. Joe was a Lifetime Director for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo and a proud member of the "Dirt Road" Bar-B-Q Team at the HLSR. He became involved in the rodeo over twenty-five years ago and again gained lifelong friends among his fellow committee members. He loved the committee's room more than the shows themselves. He had served on the Swine Auction Committee as well as the Steer Auction Committee over the years. He was also a Master Vice Commander of the Houston Chapter of the Knights of the Vine (KOV). Over the course of the last fifteen years he had become a huge proponent of Texas wine and wineries. He was a member Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association of Texas (TWGGA). He began growing grapes at his ranch in Catspring in the early 1990's and he and his family were starting a winery, Sandy Ridge Vineyard. Joe loved his Irish heritage and his Kennedy name. Years ago he began a quest to discover the roots of his Kennedy Irish. He traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana which the Kennedy's first port of entry in the 1800's. From there he traveled to Dublin, Ireland where he researched his relatives at the Royal Library in Dublin. Ultimately he found the working ranch where his relatives had left many generations ago in County Kildare, Ireland. He started a lifelong relationship with his Kennedy relatives in Ireland and communicated with them until very recently. Before losing his parents, he flew them to Ireland so they too could see the origins of the family and meet the Kennedy's of Ireland. Joe was a gourmet. He loved to cook and he loved to entertain. He was passionate about everything he did and he did it to it's fullest but in the kitchen he was truly gifted. He passed on his desire and passion to cook but just like the operating rooms, the kitchens will never be the same without Joe.As with his academic and professional background, everyone knew that if you had a question about any hobby, outdoor activity, all you had to do was just ask Joe. He was a unique, wonderful person and he will be truly missed. He leaves behind countless grieving friends, colleagues and family, the closest of whom will never get to say "Good-bye, Joe, and Thank You!" and the youngest of whom that will never get to know the Joe who touched our lives and made this world a better place.Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from six until eight o'clock in the evening on Friday, the 18th of September, at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.A celebration of Joe's life will be held at half past one o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, the 19th of September, in the Jasek chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston. The graveside service and interment will follow, via an escorted cortege, at Glenwood Cemetery, 2525 Washington Avenue in Houston.