Joe Guhin

Joe was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on September 21, 1954, the sixth of nine children. Soon after, his parents, Richard and Margaret (Pusl) Guhin, moved to Bettendorf, Iowa, where they remained for decades. Joe attended local public schools, graduating from Bettendorf High School in 1973, where he was involved in choir, stage crew, cross country and track, winning state-wide honors for his skill at distance running, showing the love for the arts and stubborn tenacity that would characterize him for his entire life. Unlike most students, he had a plan when he attended high school. He was going to be a pilot and do all he could to be accepted to the Air Force Academy.

He succeeded at reaching this dream, and upon high school graduation, was a proud member of the United States Air Force Academy Class of 1977 in Colorado Springs. His degree was in engineering mechanics. When not studying and learning to be an officer, he embraced the opportunity to sing throughout the country as a member of the Air Force Academy Choir, and was a leader in Catholic ministries at the Academy. He spoke fondly of that time, and in particular how much he loved the beautiful Air Force Academy chapel. It was where he first proposed to his wife of 41 years, and he was continually eager to share memories of his time there with his children for years to come.

But his biggest thrill was learning to fly, an experience of joy he felt lucky he could count as a job. He attended pilot training at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas, as a new second lieutenant and academy graduate. This is also where he met the love of his life, a Texas Tech student named Carla Thomeer. They met, appropriately enough, at a church: Carla was singing for the Mass and Joe was awestruck. He asked her out the same day. She thought he seemed a bit dorky, but she decided one date couldn’t hurt. They quickly fell in love and married in 1979.

They moved to Minot, North Dakota, for Joe’s first posting as a co-pilot of a KC-135 tanker at Minot Air Force Base. Their first two sons, Jeffrey and Christopher, were born in Minot, and their birth caused Joe to realize his other great love: being a Dad. He was so excited to shovel snow with his firstborn son that he bought him a little shovel before the baby could lift his head (this son, upon eventually gaining the capacity for effectively shoveling snow, did not necessarily share an enthusiasm for the task). While his career as an Air Force officer sometimes took him away from his family for long hours, weeks and even long months, his fierce commitment to his wife and children was unceasing.

In 1983, the young family moved from North Dakota to Wichita, Kansas, where Joe was stationed at McConnell Air Force Base as a Captain, flying KC-135 tankers. Joe and Carla’s third child, Rebecca, was born there. After three years, they moved to Papillion, Nebraska, for Joe’s position at Offutt Air Force base. This is where their fourth and fifth children, Benjamin and Kassandra, were born. Joe worked in “the underground” or headquarters for the U.S. Strategic Air Command. When not guarding the red phone, Joe (and Carla) became deeply involved in scouting, helping run troops, host events, and organize large campout excursions. They also caught the Big Red fever for college football. While Carla had already been a sports fan when they met, Joe soon got quite passionate about college (and later pro) football, rooting for the Nebraska Cornhuskers even after the family left Nebraska.

In 1990, the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where Joe attended the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base for a year. From there, the family moved to Nine Mile Falls, Washington, where Joe continued to fly tankers at Fairchild Air Force base. They quickly found new avenues for their passions for scouting and for Catholicism, getting involved at St. Charles Parish in Spokane, Washington, whose school enrolled four of their five children over the family’s five years in Washington state.

While living in Nine Mile Falls, Joe rekindled two of the hobbies he loved the most: going on walks and working with his hands. While he had always been handy (his wife once volunteered Joe to hang all the ceiling fans at their children’s school in Papillion), Joe took things to new levels in Spokane. Joe and Carla bought a home with an entirely unfinished basement and, as their children got older, bigger, and more obstreperous, the need for additional space only increased. Rather than hiring someone, Joe taught himself how to do it all. In an era well before YouTube tutorials, he bought books, read carefully, and made sure he always measured twice. After a few years, the entire basement was finished, complete with a family room, two bedrooms, a study, a laundry room and a bathroom. Joe did it all himself: the plumbing, the wiring, the sheetrock, painting, and wallpaper. He did occasionally have help from his prepubescent children, but the degree to which this was actually helpful remained a subject of debate for many years within the family.

The Spokane, Washington area is also incredibly beautiful, and the family enjoyed many long walks and trips to local mountains and the Pacific coast. Joe loved to ride mountain bikes through the trails and go on the occasional ski trip with one of his older children.

True to their life of never living anywhere more than five years, in 1995, the family returned to Offutt Air Force base and Omaha, Nebraska, this time settling in the suburb of Bellevue to be closer to the base. Again, Joe and Carla found scout troops for their children and a Catholic parish they could call their spiritual home. Jeff left home for college while the family lived in Bellevue, and during his time at Offutt, Joe worked in maintaining nuclear preparedness. It was in Omaha where he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after having served 23 years in the United States Air Force.

Joe wasn’t sure what to do after the Air Force, but he finally settled on a job on the east coast, working for Atlas Air in Purchase, New York, in operations support and process improvement, which he started in 2001. Joe embraced the challenges of his new job, quickly developing his skills at managing safety, compliance, and security for airlines. Meanwhile, he and Carla bought a beautiful home with a large pond in Shelton, Connecticut. While the commute was fairly intense, they enjoyed all of New England’s natural beauty and being closer to New York City, where four of their children, in different moments, would go on to live.

Joe and Carla loved seeing plays and musicals and trying new restaurants in New York, but most of all they loved seeing their family there and exploring the city with them. Three of Joe’s children, Chris, Becky, and Ben, left home and started college while the family lived in Shelton. Meanwhile, Joe continued to take on new projects to improve their home, always eager to bring along one of his children – and occasionally their friends – to join in the work and share what he’d learned.

In 2006, Joe, Carla, and Kass moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania (a suburb outside of Philadelphia), where Joe worked for five years as the director of safety and regulatory compliance at USA3000 Airlines. It was there where Kass graduated from high school and went on to college, and also where Joe learned that rooting for the Eagles can be almost as fun as supporting the Cornhuskers.

The next decade was like the ones before – full of moves. Joe worked for one year as a director of safety and security at Dynamic Airways in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, settling with Carla in Winston-Salem. From there, they lived in Lafayette, Louisiana for four years, where Joe worked as a data manager for Petroleum Helicopters International and developed a deep appreciation for Cajun food. Then it was back to North Carolina in 2016, this time settling in Greensboro. At his death, Joe worked as Director of Safety at 21Air, a job that brought him more excitement and energy than any he had had since the Air Force. He had only been there for a year and five months when he died.

In North Carolina, Joe and Carla loved exploring the state parks and finding as many secret waterfalls as they could. They were passionate about redecorating and redesigning their new house. A perfect pair, Carla would have an idea for a room or a backyard nook, and Joe would go to the hardware store and get the things to make it appear. They loved living so close to an airport, because it made it so much easier for them to travel all over the country to see their children and grandchildren. In recent months, COVID-19 travel restrictions made such visits impossible, but they still did everything they could to stay in touch over FaceTime and Zoom.

Joe will be missed for so much: his deep devotion to his wife, children, and grandchildren; his amazing ability to make just about anything out of wood; his beautiful, booming singing voice at church that turned heads and never ceased to embarrass his children. He was so proud of his children and grandchildren, and he would talk at length to anyone who would listen about how great they were, to the surprise, joy, and occasional confusion of waiters and grocery store clerks across the continental United States. Joe loved passionately, and so many loved him passionately in return.

In addition to many siblings and siblings-in-law, Joe is survived by his wife, Carla, and his five children and their partners, Jeffrey Guhin and Mary Katherine Sheena of Santa Monica, California, Christopher and Whitney Guhin of Metuchen, New Jersey, Rebecca and Andy Czarnecki of South Bend, Indiana, Benjamin Guhin and Marni Wilhite Delphine of Austin, Texas, and Kassandra Guhin and Allyson Kelley of Brooklyn, New York. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, Mila, Aiden, Fiona, Ethan, Joseph, Dorothy, Evelyn, and Liam.

We held a mass in honor of Joe on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021.

For information about Joe's burial service at Arlington National Cemetery, visit joeguhin.com/arlington

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In lieu of flowers, we encourage donations to the following charities to support Joe’s love of nature and life-long commitment to serving our veterans.

The Fisher House Foundation
Fisher House builds comfort homes where military & veterans families can stay free of charge, while a loved one is in the hospital. Donate here

Friends of North Carolina State Parks
The Friends of North Carolina State Parks provides educational, economic, recreational, and health benefits that improve and sustain the unique natural heritage of North Carolina and the well-being of its people. Donate here

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My Dad Loved to Build Things

Eulogy from Joe's oldest child, Jeff

Funeral Rite and Military Honors

Photos of Joe

A memorial shared before Joe's funeral service