Joseph B. Gries

Joseph B. Gries, 92, of Dallas, passed away Monday, July 16, 2018, at his home.

Born in Hanover Twp., he was the son of the late Herman and Mary O'Branski Gries.

He was a graduate of Hanover High School, where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He later majored in English and minored in broadcasting at Wilkes University.

Joseph was a veteran of World War II, serving in the U.S. Army.

Joseph began his career in broadcasting at Texas Lutheran College and later the University of Texas and West Virginia University.

In 1955, he returned to the Wyoming Valley, working for WBRE Radio and later WSCR, in Scranton, to announce University of Scranton athletics and high school sports.

He covered thousands of high school, college and professional baseball, basketball and football games in his long career, most notably, the Sugar Bowl, and did play-by-play for the New York Giants and the great Wilkes University Colonel football teams and King's College basketball teams of the late 1960s and 1970s.

He retired as the national sales manager and sports director at WARD Radio.

For his distinguished broadcasting career, he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, in 1988. In addition, he received the Wilkes University Lifetime Career Achievement award, P.I.A.A. Broadcaster of the Year award, Capital Records Disc Jockey of the Year award and numerous other honors and awards for his service to the community as a speaker, before various civic clubs and groups.

Joseph loved traveling, watching sporting events, reading and working with the youth of the community in any type of sporting activity.

He was a member of Gate of Heaven Church.

Preceding him in death, in addition to his parents, was his brother, Charles.

Surviving are his wife of 59 years, the former Ann Marie Ferko; children, Colleen Gallagher and her husband, James, Bridgewater, New Jersey; Maurita Elias and her husband, Robert, Dallas; Joe II, Dallas; grandson, Matthew Gallagher; several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Harold C. Snowdon Funeral Home Inc., 140 N. Main St., Shavertown.

A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 10:30 a.m. in Gate of Heaven Church, 40 Machell Ave., Dallas. The Rev. Daniel A. Toomey will officiate.

Interment will be in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Carverton. Friends may call from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Gate of Heaven Church or to the charity of the donor's choice.