Obituary

Joe Fowler, age 56, passed away peacefully on Sunday January 15th, just a few minutes before his second greatest love, The Green Bay Packers, kicked off in the NFL playoffs. He was surrounded by his greatest love, his wife Jeannette, along with his brothers, a few other friends and his dog. It was a serene end to a long fight against cancer and the pneumonia that eventually took him. If you knew Joe at all, you knew that is how he wanted it.

If you knew Joe at all....
....you knew he embodied so many of the qualities to which we all strive. He was fiercely loyal, full of joy and laughter and most of all was the very definition of empathy. He had the unique ability to put himself in another's place and try to see and feel what they were experiencing.
.....you knew that during the last few months, his deepest concern was for the folks around him. How his illness was impacting them and what they were having to do because of his situation. Selfless to the core.
.....you knew what it was like to laugh...to laugh at the absurdities of life and to laugh at the joys it can bring. You knew that Joe took the idea of a "knee-slapper" to the limit. When he laughed, he would literally slap his knee. His joy and laughter were infectious and contagious.
.....you knew once you met him you were a friend for life. He had the ability to make all feel welcome and all feel like they had been friends forever.
.....you knew at some point he was going to laugh at himself. Whether it was his hamfisted guitar playing and terrible ability to make any song sound like a bad Bob Dylan impersonator was singing it or his admission that by the third beer of the night he was secretly pouring it down the sink.
....you knew that at some point the talk would lead to the Packers and trying to figure out exactly what their best option was for third string cornerback in the nickel defense.
....you now know you had as true a friend as you could ever hope for, a kinder spirit than you will ever have in your life and you now have a Chiefy shaped hole in your heart that can never be filled.

Beloved husband of Jeannette Anastasia Colyvas; cherished human to dog Oscar; loved son of the late Robert Vernon and the late Lorraine Agnes Fowler; fond brother of Robert (Diane), Richard, James (Faye), Jeffrey (Deborah) and John (Mary Kay) Fowler; adored uncle of 17 and proud member of the Brothertown in Wisconsin Native American Tribe. Continued...