Joseph Lee Grob

Joseph Lee Grob (71), of Fremont, Ohio, born on November 10, 1953, left this earthly realm on Thursday, March 6th, 2025. It seems a miracle that after his arduous struggle with ALS, he passed on peacefully at home surrounded by his family.

Joe loved the outdoors and excelled in Boy Scouts. One of his proudest accomplishments as a teen was earning his Eagle Scout medal as the youngest in the Toledo area district. He graduated from Hocking Hills Technical College with a degree in Recreation and Wildlife Management. He worked for and retired from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency where he proudly helped decrease air pollution first hand for 35 years.

On May 1st, 1976, Joe married the love of his life, Yvonne (Vonnie) Schabel, and they started their family together. Every morning they would wave to him from the front window when he left for work and every evening his kids would line up to run and jump into his arms when he returned home. Family was everything to Joe. Years of memories were made on the dance floor at the Gulish Villa, on Sunday drives looking for deer and listening to corn grow, and the many family trips to Myrtle Beach.

Joe was a strong man who lived his convictions. He moved through life always doing the best he could. He loved God and his family with all his heart.

Joe welcomed the warmth of the summer sun as he tended his vegetable garden. In later years, it blossomed with sunflowers he joyfully planted with his grandkids. He loved fishing, canoeing, bicycling, and coaching his kids’ sports teams. Campfire nights in the backyard crackled with excitement, moonpies, and Jack's Alive. He loved bird watching until the day he could fly free alongside them. Joe valued fitness, and basement workouts with his grandkids became a cherished tradition. In colder months, he enjoyed hunting and watching the Steelers. Joe’s commitment to AA, and his own sobriety, was something he was proud of, leading him to help save many lives of those he sponsored. He learned the power of acceptance and surrender as he grew in his relationship with God. He volunteered at Memorial Hospital as a spiritual caregiver for six years praying with the sick and dying. The stories from those encounters would have surely made a beautiful book.

Vonnie, his wife and high school sweetheart, survives him to keep alive the memories of a love and life shared. His children - Bryan (MaRyan), Christy, and Eric (Erin) - honor his legacy in their own ways, each carrying with them pieces of who he was. Joe was a proud and devoted Boppy to his six grandchildren - Carol, Eleazar, Reylin, Andra, Blake, and Addison. His only sibling, Dianne (Richard), is forever bonded to him by their shared roots. His 95-year-old father, Raymond, continues on, a witness to nearly a century of family history. Joe is preceded in departure by his mother, Jane, and parents-in-law, Bob and Martha Schabel, with whom he is now reunited.

Visitation will take place Saturday, April 5th from 2 to 6pm at Wonderly Horvath Hanes Funeral Home, with a memorial service following at 6pm, officiated by pastor and friend, Stephen Dagg.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made in Joe’s honor to:

www.ALS.org 

www.cancer.org 

www.stjude.org