May 30, 2001

Joe Fallon

Joe died peacefully on Saturday, May 26 after a brief illness. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 16, 1944 and grew up in Forest Hills until he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service in 1962. Stationed in Hawaii, Joe served as an Electronics Technician from 1964 until 1969. He was a member of the launching and commissioning crew of the USS Kamehameha, SSBN 642, and served on six patrols. He received citations commending him for "superior professional performance" and "vigorous and diligent efforts as leading technician responsible for the ship’s inertial navigation systems…Your initiative, tenacity, and superb performance are significant and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States submarine service."

He was married in 1965, and with loving family, Evelyn, and daughters April and Jennifer, moved from Hawaii to Sacramento in 1969 to attend California State University where he received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering, and his MBA. Their daughter, Keara, was born while he was a student and Joe spent many nights rocking her cradle in the middle of the night while in his study working on his master’s thesis.

Upon graduation, he accepted an engineering position with Hughes Aircraft working on defense guidance systems and NASA projects. The family returned to Sacramento and friends in 1977 and Joe joined Wismer & Becker, later Atkinson Systems Technologies, to support their growing telecommunications unit. In 1990, he entered the Telecommunications Division of the State of California and became head of the Project Management Unit gaining the trust, admiration, and respect of his colleagues and friends for his leadership talent, technical skills and sense of humor.

Joe is loved and remembered by family, Maura Duggan, Catherine and JimVidean, Georgia and Bob Boggs, Patrick and Debra Duggan, and special family friends the Boylans and Masons. Nieces and nephews, cousins, friends, neighbors and colleagues all remember Joe for his warm smile, willingness to help, joy in solving problems, and his integrity and stability. He is remembered above all for his quiet and gentle spirit and as a true friend and a gentle man. He will be missed by all.

His loves and interests were his family, travel, music, electronic gadgets, and naval history. He was a founding member of the Sacramento chapter of United States Submarine Veterans, and was planning to be part of the decommissioning crew of the USS Kamehameha this summer. He was a board member of the Project Management Institute and a member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).