Joe and his wife Cindy live in Fortville, Indiana, having moved here four years ago from Dayton, Ohio to be closer to family. He is a father, grandfather, a retired civil servant, and a semi-retired businessman.

Since moving to Indiana, Joe has been actively involved in his community. Most notably, he has been directly involved in fighting the forced annexation of private property by municipal governments, particularly with the Geist community and currently the effort to make the Town of Fishers a City.

These efforts have included working with state senators and representatives in the General Assembly to develop and pass legislation that would help real homeowners. Joe has come to understand a great deal about how the legislative process works—or more accurately, doesn’t work—in Indiana. Both at the state and local levels. He found the current state representative had little or no concern for the problems of the community and this has led to him running for this office.

Joe is an aerospace and mechanical engineer and worked for the U.S. Air Force for 30 years, including four years as a direct commission officer. His initial focus was in Air Cargo and Airdrop Research and Development; he earned 11 patents and 23 US Air Force Invention awards, as well as numerous other awards including Lawrence Sperry Award as top top young engineer in aeronautics in the United States in 1977. He is known for the development of the concept of air cargo hubs, long before it became common practice and for the development of internal structural criteria of both aircraft and spacecraft that has been adopted worldwide. He went on to become an assistant to the Air Force Chief Engineer and later as Assistant to the Commander of the Air Force Material Command an organization of 85,000 people. He was well known for his ability to solve complex technical integrations relative to aircraft development and also business of running a government organization. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from New York University and is also a graduate of the Air War College.

On retiring from civil service, Joe went into business and opened an Apple Computer store in Dayton, where in three years he grew it to the thirteenth largest Apple dealership in the U.S. Many of the concepts he developed were adopted by Apple nationwide and are still in use today. In the Dayton community he was recognized as the small business Executive of the Year in 1998.

As a member of his community, Joe served as a commissioner on the Centerville, Ohio Planning and Zoning Commission for six years. He is also very involved in Scouting having served as a Scoutmaster and District Chairman, and on the Council Executive Board in Dayton and now with the Crossroad Council where he is the Chairmen of the local chapter of the National Eagle Scout Association. He is one of the few to be recognized nationally by the Boy Scouts of America as a Distinguished Eagle Scout.

It is important to note that Joe’s last position with the Air Force was Technical Assistant to the Commander of the Air Force Material Command. In that position, Joe earned recognition and praise regarding his ability to present complex topics in a precise, but easy-to-understand manner, and working with others to get approvals for projects and acquisitions—realizing a 90% success rate, which is almost unheard of. He was very well know in the Air Force for his annual “5,10,20 Plan” which was an independent view if where the Air Force should be technically in 5, 10 and 20 years out. Much of what he wrote years ago can be seen on the battlefield today.