Joseph P. Horan passed away peacefully, Sunday, May 10, 2020.  He lived 102 beautiful years.  He died in the house he built with his own hands, raised his family in, and called home for 71 years.

Joe was born at home in Beverly, NJ, in March 1918, to his parents, John and Elizabeth Horan. He was third in a family of four boys and two girls. They moved to Cleveland Ave., Riverside, in 1928, so the children could attend St. Peter's Parish school.  In the same year, his future wife Betty's family moved from Palmyra to the same street in Riverside, also to attend St. Peter's, in the same class.

Joe enjoyed growing up in Riverside in a large family with many friends he kept for life.  His grandchildren loved listening to his stories of Riverside life and came to believe that Cleveland Ave. must be an awfully long street, if nearly all the people in his stories lived there.  Joe went to Riverside High School, graduating in 1937.  He was still in touch with his only other remaining classmate.

After high school, Joe attended Moorestown Business School, then went to work for the state of New Jersey.  He would continue in a career of 42 years, most of them as a tax auditor.  He enjoyed this work as it got him out in the field meeting people every day. That he made friends of people he was auditing, is a tribute to the kind of man he was. People were drawn to him. He made new friends all his life and kept old ones forever.

After Pearl Harbor, he joined all the other Riverside boys enlisting in the army.  Because he was blind in one eye, he was turned down twice.  On the third try, he was accepted.  After time at Ft. Dix, then Syracuse, he saw a regulation that said that limited service men could now volunteer for the infantry.  He sent a letter through channels and became part of the 106th, the last full Infantry Division formed in WWll.

He was shipped to Europe on the Aquitania, a liner converted to troop carrier. His division moved to the Ardennes in Belgium, where they would soon be in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge. His regiment was surrounded by German troops and tanks, and he was wounded while transporting another wounded soldier to an aide station.  Providence intervened, when an ambulance came along and the German patrol let them take the wounded away.  The rest of his regiment would become POW's.

After time in hospitals in England, he would return to France as the war in Europe wound down.  On the 75th anniversary of VE Day, he was telling us how he was marching in a parade in France that day 75 years ago.

After the war, he returned to Riverside, and went back to work for the state.  Taking advantage of the GI bill, Joe enrolled in the Wharton Evening School and would earn a degree in Accounts and Finance.  A high school friend told him he ought to look up Betty Corner who was single and living in Palmyra.  He did - to which his children and grandchildren say, 'Thank God!' - and Joe and Betty became a couple, in the summer of 1947.  They decided it would be cheaper to build a house than buy one, so for $600, they bought a double lot in Palmyra in May 1948.  Working together and with the help of his brothers, the house went up. In June of '49,  Joe and Betty were united in Matrimony, at Sacred Heart Church, Riverton, beginning 55 years of happy married life. Like other members of the 'Greatest Generation,' they went to work building a wonderful life for their children and their communities.  In the 50's, Joe built an inground pool so Betty could teach swimming to thousands of kids, and some adults, through the years. They would raise a family of four, two boys and two girls, who were the happy recipients of the most important gift parents can give their children,  to choose each other to share their lives and love.

They made a home for their kids that was enviable. Besides the pool, he built monkeybars and a treehouse, hung ropes to swing on and to climb up. In the summer, after dinner, he would go out and pitch balls  for the kids to hit. He put a water fountain in the backyard under the trees. In winter, he would swing the kids around on the frozen street on a saucer-like disc he made from an old refrigerator motor cover.  But it wasn't all outdoors fun. He had a lifelong love of reading - like his father before him - he would stay up late reading at night.  He wanted to be sure his kids would always have books around.  He bought new and second hand books and built an addition on the house with bookshelves on all the walls.

Joe planted peach and plum trees and always got a live tree at Christmas to plant in the yard after. The Christmas trees that once stood in the house, now  tower over it.  Joe was a gardener who enjoyed his summer tomatoes and zucchini and would often try growing some different kind of bean or other vegetable.

After retiring at the end of 1980, Joe and Betty enjoyed many trips around the country and overseas to Ireland and Germany.    Joe and Betty loved going out to lunch and dinner, and when grandchildren came along, taking them too.  His grandchildren were true gifts.  He went to their concerts, plays, soccer, and field hockey games through their school years.  He was proud of all of them and let everyone know his grandson was a two time All American in college soccer.  He was blessed to be able to dance with two of his granddaughters at their weddings.  During this time of pandemic, he enjoyed facetiming with  family  and visits through the kitchen and car windows.

Each day he'd ask what the grandkids were up to today.

He took up golf at the suggestion of his old boss, and continued to play into his late 90's.  He had many happy times on golf courses with his many friends, and especially with his son-in-law and grandson.  He continued bowling in two leagues,  making new friends in his 90's,  until the alleys shut down in March.  One month after his 100th birthday, he bowled a 204 game.

Joe was a strong man with powerful faith.  When he arrived back in Riverside after the War, his first stop off the bus was a visit to St. Pete's Church.  He was a faithful Communicant at Sacred Heart Church for 71 years,  often attending daily Mass in his 90's.  He was part of a prayer group at Sacred Heart who would meet  at Mary's Garden to pray the Rosary.  He continued to pray the rosary each night before falling asleep. After he turned 100, a friend asked him if he was afraid of dying.  He said no, because he prayed.  He had a strong relationship with his God Who had brought him through the 1918 flu, the war, and cancer in 1984. He loved participating at Mass with his children and grandchildren, especially when one of his granddaughters was cantor, two more brought up the gifts,  and his grandsons joined their father and other grandfather to take up the collection.  Joe was a past president of the county Holy Name Society and for 74 years a member of the St. John Neuman Council Knights of Columbus, Delran. He truly enjoyed his times with his KofC friends and stopping in on Friday nights before bringing home a pizza.

For a great many years he spent the pre-dawn hours of every first Friday in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament as a member of the Nocturnal Adoration Society.  In recent years he spent an hour in prayer each week at the Perpetual Adoration Chapels of Holy Name and St. Charles Parishes. He had a special devotion to Padre Pio and usually had a St. Pio prayer book with him.

His hardest times he shared with Betty when their firstborn, Sue, was diagnosed with degenerative brain disease.  They cared for her for  years until her death in 1998.  He ended his eulogy with, 'Vaya con Dios, Sue.'    Go with God.  His faith in God sustained him.  Then when Betty's health failed, he cared for her so that she could spend her last days in the home they built together.  He gave his bride back to God's care on Good Friday, 2004.  He always said he was so fortunate to have had so many good and happy years together and to have lived such a long and healthy life.

Joe was preceded in death by his loving wife, Betty, daughter, Sue, son-in-law, John, his parents, his brothers and sisters, Mark, John, Frank, Marge, and Betty.  He is the last of his generation in our family.  He is now reunited with Betty and Sue and all his family in heaven and takes on the role of advocate for his family on Earth before the God he loved all his life.

Joe leaves to loving memory his sons, Patrick, George and Guy, his daughter Mary, his grandchildren Erin and Neil, Meghan and Ryan, Brian, Shane, and Brigid, his first niece, Mary Ann and many other loving nieces and nephews and dear friends who helped make his life so full of love.  He will also be missed by his good friend, Buddy.

Whenever people would find out his age after he turned 100, they would always say, 'God bless you!'  Dad would always respond, 'He already has!'  He truly believed God had blessed him again and again all throughout his long and wonderful life.

Go with God, dear Dad. We will love you and miss you until we meet again.

Funeral services and internment at St. Peter's Cemetery will be private.

A Mass and memorial to celebrate his life will be held at a later date.

Mass cards would be appreciated by his family.  Donations in Joe's name can be made to Sacred Heart Church, Riverton,  Holy Cross High School, Delran,  or the Sisters of Charity of Halifax, 125 Oakland St.,  Wellesley Hills, Mass., 02481.