Harlem – Mr. Edward Joseph “Joe” Doby, Jr., 73, left this life after a long illness to be with the Lord on Thursday, August 7, 2014.
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at 1:00 Pm at the Chapel at Bellevue Memorial Gardens with interment following. Dr. Brad Whitt, pastor of Abilene Baptist Church, will officiate. The family will receive friends one hour prior to service time.
Joe was born in Birmingham, Alabama on March 9, 1941, and graduated high school in Pell City, Alabama. He was a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, and earned his BS and MS degrees in Industrial Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He held multiple positions of Vice President and General Manager for Blue Bird Corporation (school buses), working at plants in Georgia, Iowa, Virginia and Canada, and was also actively involved in church and community activities with each transfer. He was an enthusiastic manager, conceiving and developing improvements in the production and plant facilities. He designed and developed several production machines and tools that were adopted corporate-wide. He liked greeting employees at the door in the morning, being regularly in the plant, and being accessible with an open door. He encouraged suggestions and sought to ensure that anyone with a good idea received the credit. He later said that encouraging and supporting the growth and development of staff and plant employees and to see their success was the most rewarding part of his career.
Throughout his life, Joe’s abiding passion was building, particularly with wood. He restored their turn of the century home in Iowa, built furniture and worked to improve each home. As he became ill, he continued building, and, in a new home, built a bridge across a creek and a bench to sit on when you reached the other side.
He was a faithful Christian, husband, father and grandfather, and will be lovingly remembered by family and friends.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Kay Blackwood Doby, his son and daughter-in-law, Edward Lee and Nancy Doby, his grandchildren, Jacob Doby and Jessica Doby, his brother-in-law, Dr. Charles Little, his nephews, Jeff (Karen) Little, and Brent Blackwood, his nieces, Dr. Catherine (Dr. Brian) Finnegan, Elisabeth Little, and Jennifer (Phillip) Chivers, as well as many other loving family members.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Edward Joseph Doby and Chloe Rackley Doby Drummond, and by his sister, Dr. Chloe Doby Little.
If so desired, memorials may be made to the Samaritan’s Purse, PO Box 3000, Boone, North Carolina, 28607, or to Abilene Baptist Church, 3917 Washington Road, Martinez, Georgia, 30907.