HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolutions - 1962.06.25 - 19870Miscellaneous Resolution 3985 June 25, 1962
BY: Mr. Tinsman
IN RE: MEMORIAL FOR JOE HAAS
To the Oakland County Board of Supervisors
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
The new Oakland County Directory for 1962-1963 which the Clerk, Mr. Murphy,
distributed to members of the Board today contains the final chapter of vignettes about
the County -- its past, present and future -- written by Joe Haas, our late beloved
County Historian. Joe, as he was so affectionately called by all of us-and which was
really his name -- passed away peacefully on May 9, 1962, at his Holly home he loved
so well.
Joe, or Mr. Oakland County, as he was often called, came to Holly when he
was six months old from his birth place, Waterbury Connecticut. He was the son of
Frederick and Delia Haas, born June 18, 1877. At the age of 7 he became a newspaper
carrier, which was his start in a lifetime career and just before his death in his 84th year
he mentioned the fact that he was proud to be the oldest working news man in the State.
He was perhaps best known for his column "Man About Town" which appeared in
the Pontiac Press. Until 1937 he was the owner and publisher of the Holly Herald, and
in 1944 he joined the staff of the Pontiac Press.
Community service was a way of life for Joe Haas. A former Village and Township
Clerk, in Holly, he was later a member and President of the Holly Board of Education.
Joe had a great interest in the Boy Scout movement, attended every National Jamboree,
for outstanding service was awarded the Silver Beaver Award, was a member of the
executive board of the Clinton Valley Council of Boy Scouts of America, and in his Will
he bequeathed his estate to Camp Agawam for Boy Scouts for the construction of the
Win-Joe Lodge.
Joe served the County as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Oakland
County Tuberculosis Sanatorium since 1946 and was named County Historian by the
Board of Supervisors in 1959.
Joe took an active interest in youth movements and, besides his work with the
Boy Scouts, he took a keen interest in 4-H work. Last year at the Oakland County 4-41
Fair he presented a top member with a Holstein heifer in memory of his wife, Winifred
who passed away in 1959. It would please Joe to know that this heifer, now a cow, is
the proud mother of a heifer calf which will be presented to another 4-H Club member
at the 4-11 Fair in August this year.
Surviving are two sisters, Mrs. Roy Smith of South Haven and Mrs. Edna Hearns
of Detroit.
MR. CHAIRMAN/ on behalf of all the members of this Board of Supervisors,
move that the foregoing memorial be spread on the official minutes of this meeting
of the Board, and that the County Clerk be directed to send certified copies of this
resolution, with the seal of the County of Oakland affixed thereto, to his sisters.
SPECIAL COMMITTEE