Joseph E. Amaral, 69, of Glocester, died Sunday, January 8, 2017 of Multiple Myeloma in the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He was the devoted husband of Claudia (Mello) Amaral. They had been married for 47 years.
Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, he was a son of the late Joseph and Mary (Sottile) Amaral. He served in the United States Army during the Vietnam Era, and rose to the rank of Captain before being honorably discharged.
After six years at General Dynamic Electric Boat, Joe joined Instron on June 1978 as a Senior Engineering designer and quickly rose through the ranks to first become the Director of R&D and eventually to become President of Instron’s Materials Testing. He retired March 2006. Joe was a distinguished member of ASTM chairing the influential E28 standard. Early 2009, ASTM awarded him their highest honor, the John M. “Tim” Holt Lifetime Achievement Award.
Joe was on engineering advisory boards at the University of Rhode Island, UMass Dartmouth, and the State University of New York at Stoney Brook. He was also a member of the World Trade Day Committee at Bryant University.
Besides his wife, he is survived by his beloved children, Christian J. Amaral and his wife, Casie Kerrigan, of Harmony, Megan B. Hoffenberg and her husband, Noah, of Sandwich, Massachusetts and Caitlin E. Amaral of Roslindale, Massachusetts, as well as his two grandchildren, Lola and Siddha, and his siblings, Joyce Noland of Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and Michael Amaral and his wife Laurie of Warner, New Hampshire.
His funeral service will be held Friday at 11am in St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Route 116 and Route 44, Greenville. Burial will follow in Acote’s Hill Cemetery, Chepachet. Visitation Thursday 4-7pm in the ANDERSON-WINFIELD Home, Route 44 at Greenville Common, Greenville. In lieu of flowers donations in his memory may be made to Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, 383 Main Avenue, 5th Floor, Norwalk, CT 06851 or David Avigan, MD, c/o Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Division of Hematology and Oncology, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215.