Joseph Cullen

Joseph (Joe) Patrick Cullen: A story of love and family

On May 8, 2022 at 11 am, Joe passed into eternity surrounded by his wife, daughters, and grandson.

Joe Cullen was born in Chicago in December of 1936. Joe was raised by his mom, Dorothea, and maternal grandmother, and was close to the seven siblings of his father. He spent his early childhood on the East side of Chicago, where he met his lifelong best friend Lenny Hawkinson. Joe’s uncles took him to Wrigley Field to see the Chicago Cubs games, sparking a lifelong love of baseball.

When Joe began high school at Bowen High School in Chicago, he was only 4 feet 10 inches tall. That did not stop him from winning the high jump at a track meet. During Joe’s high school years, his grandmother bought a farm in the small town of Hamlet, Indiana. It was there that Joe graduated from high school.

Like many men of his generation, Joe was drafted into the army in 1960. He completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Joe served for two years in Okinawa, Japan, where he handled classified information. Joe had an ease with language, learning several Japanese phrases that he would later share with his wife and daughters.

Joe did not see much of his father, Joseph William, growing up, as his father was a career Army man, often stationed far from Joe. His father remarried in 1953. His new wife, Edith (Skip),  encouraged Joe’s dad to establish a relationship with him. Skip was a nurse and officer in the army and her love and support meant so much to Joe, and later, his wife and daughters.

Upon his return to the States, Joe worked at the Continental Bank in downtown Chicago. One fateful Friday night in 1964, he attended a dance at the Merchandise Mart. It was there that he met his beloved wife, Ginger. They had their first date at Comiskey Park (home of the Chicago White Sox) with Joe’s Army buddy Gary Hopkins and his wife Edie. Ginger grew up a Sox fan as she lived near the old Comiskey Park. In spite of their Cubs/Sox differences, they fell in love. Before marrying, Joe was embraced by Ginger’s family and converted to Catholicism. The happy couple also bought a navy VW Beetle. They were married on August 7, 1965, surrounded by family and friends. Joe always remembered the night that he met his beloved Ginger, along with their first date and every wedding anniversary. He and Ginger had a running joke that he was a bargain basement special at the merchandise mart.

Early in their married life, the young couple lived in Chicago. Joe worked at Navy Pier (when it was an actual pier, decades before it became an amusement park). He worked in an office where he verified ships’ cargo vs. manifest. A little less  than a year after their marriage, they welcomed their first daughter, Colleen Marie. A year and 2 weeks later, their second daughter, Mary Brigid, arrived. While anticipating the birth of their second daughter, Joe and Ginger took their 9-month-old daughter on a road trip to California in the blue VW Beetle. Thus began their love of travel. The trip to California was the only trip in the navy VW as it was stolen while they were living in Chicago.

In March of 1968, Joe began his career as a fireman in Calumet City, where he worked until November of 1977. While there, he was an EMT. One of his proudest moments was when he delivered a baby girl, Cindy, in 1975. Ginger and Joe kept in touch with Cindy’s family even after they moved to Colorado in 1977. Joe and Ginger took their daughters on many vacations, sometimes road trips and sometimes flying. Joe’s mom occasionally accompanied them on road trips. The family also visited museums, whether local or on vacation. Another treasured family memory is dinner theater. Joe and Ginger took the girls to see My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof, among other plays. Joe loved Man of La Mancha and could often be found in the living room of their home listening to that album and reading the Wall Street Journal.

In 1976, Ginger and Joe took a family vacation to Colorado Springs to visit distant family. The visit included stops in Leadville and lots of mountain driving. Joe, Ginger, and the girls then spent a week at a condo in Dillon. They fell in love with Colorado and subsequently moved the family to Colorado Springs in November of 1977.

After moving to Colorado Springs, Joe worked 20 years for School District 11. After retirement, Joe and Ginger moved to Monument, where they were very involved in St. Peter’s Church. It was there that they met a couple who became fast friends, Rich and Judy Johnson. Joe and Ginger enjoyed retirement, traveling with tours to Hawaii, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, the Canadian Rockies and the east coast to enjoy fall colors.

The still-happy couple celebrated milestones with their children, such as their oldest daughter’s marriage to a fabulous son-in-law, Tom. They traveled to Chicago for the birth of their first granddaughter, Elizabeth (Ellie) Mary, and made many trips to visit and help out with her as she brought them great joy. Joe proudly talked about her twirling whirling garden toy. When Ellie pressed the music button, her grandparents danced, much to her delight. Both Joe and Ginger fell immediately in love with their only grandson, August Joseph (AJ), delighting in him as an infant and driving to Denver to preschool events. Joe loved to play baseball and basketball with August beginning as a toddler as AJ and his PopPop shared a love of sports. Ginger and Joe enjoyed watching AJ play soccer, baseball, and flag football.

In 2015, Joe and Ginger celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, again surrounded by friends and family.

The love that Joe had for Ginger is eternal. He was always delighted to see her, calling her the best thing that happened to him and his beautiful bride. After he entered the assisted living home, Joe was always happy to see his family, especially when they brought him cookies and McDonald’s coffee.

Joe is survived by his loving wife, Ginger Cullen, and daughters Colleen Cullen (husband, Tom Panton) and Mary Cullen, along with his much-loved grandchildren, Ellie Panton and AJ Cullen. Joe is also survived by numerous friends and extended family.