Joe Michael Crow

September 22, 1946 – November 4, 2022

Joe Michael Crow was an ordinary man who made an extraordinary impact on the lives of those he loved. In his 76 years, Joe was living proof that greatness isn't measured by fame and fortune but by earned responsibilities. For Joe, those responsibilities began and ended with his family. He was married to the same woman for over half a century, with whom raising their son and caring for their grandson were life's highest callings.

Born in 1946 to Carl Jesse Crow and Mattie Mae Brown Crow in Waco, Texas, Joe's childhood was spent in Waco, Brenham, and Richardson. He was a standout athlete in football and track at Waco High School and graduated in 1970 from Southwest Texas State College in San Marcos. During his college years, he met Patricia (Patsy) Barta from East Bernard. The fateful meeting would become a 51-year marriage, through sickness and health until death did they part.

Joe enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving four years at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. During his service, he married Pat on November 20, 1971, at Holy Cross Catholic Church in East Bernard. He was honorably discharged in 1974 and took up work for Ross Perot at E.D.S. in Dallas before becoming a manager at industrial supply company Briggs-Weaver in Houston. Shortly after relocating, he and Pat welcomed their only child, Chad.

In 1984, Joe made the difficult decision to move his family to southwest Austin. He took a job at Motorola, worked graveyard shifts, and built a new career from scratch to give his son opportunities he might otherwise have gone without had they remained in the Houston ship channel area. If you knew Joe, this comes as no surprise.

Joe loved his family. He was his son's #1 baseball fan and practice coach throughout Chad's school years. He built a homemade batting cage with old fishing nets salvaged from the coast, threw his arm out multiple times, and punished his back beyond repair to help his son improve his game.

Joe was also equal parts do-it-yourselfer, mechanically inclined, and cheapskate, which led to a number of projects around the house. When his son was in high school, they rebuilt a 1957 Chevy as a father/son project. Several household appliances survived near-death experiences as he attempted to fix them before finally calling a repair man. And despite no formal training in civil engineering, Joe's most famous project is perhaps the gigantic earthen berm across the back of their acre-plus yard, built to protect the house from flash flooding due to the seasonal creek along the back of the property. He and Pat built it on their own, one truck load of dirt at a time, in their late 60's.

Joe's bucket list wasn't particularly long, but somehow skydiving made the cut. His father was a decorated Army paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne who took part in the invasion of Normandy in 1944. Over 70 years later, Joe decided to follow in his footsteps. The only volunteer to accompany him on this questionable mission was his daughter-in-law, Kori. The duo jumped out of a perfectly good airplane outside of Luling. No doubt they're toasting the memory together today.

One bucket list item Joe never saw coming was the birth of his grandson, Francis. From the moment he was born, Francis was enamored with "Papa" and the feeling was mutual. Joe and Pat soon relocated to Port Aransas, where they could be part of his everyday life.

Skydiving notwithstanding, Joe cheated death at least four other times, surviving a double bypass surgery at age 35 and battling heart disease for four decades. Not until Game Four of the World Series, while watching the Houston Astros with Pat, did his heart finally get the better of him. Watched over by those he loved, he took his final breath on November 4.

Joe was preceded in death by his parents; sister and brother-in-law Nola Ann and Bill Dum; mother-in-law Erna Barta; brother-in-law Edward Barta; daughter-in-law Kori Crow; nephew Jeffery Dum, and aunts, uncles and cousins too many to name. He is survived by his wife, son, and grandson; brother and sister-in-law Carl and Judy Crow; brother Marvin; niece Amy Scott and her husband Daryl; nephew Carl Crow, Jr; niece Kelly Brode and her husband Byron, and numerous family and friends.

A celebration of Joe's life will be held on Saturday, December 3, in the Great Hall of the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. A Memorial Service will start at 11:00 a.m. A reception will follow and lunch will be served.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Trinity by the Sea Episcopal Day School where Joe's grandson attends. Please make checks payable to "Trinity by the Sea Episcopal Day School" and mail to P.O. Box 346, Port Aransas, TX 78373. Alternately, you can donate online by visiting tinyurl.com/trinitybythesea.

Perhaps this is a long obituary for an ordinary man, but that's the extraordinary thing about ordinary people who recognize that their responsibilities are not a burden but an opportunity. Put simply: Joe got it. He found great meaning and deep satisfaction in providing for his family. He worked hard every day to provide simple joys for those he loved. He gave more opportunities to those who came after him than he ever had himself. He left the world a little bit better than he found it — and there's nothing ordinary about that.