Purpose:  To honor Joe Carnes and the contributions he made to the community.

Criteria:

Graduating senior at Crystal Lake South High School with a GPA of at least 3.0 who has financial need and has been involved in school, community and/or church activities.  Open to all majors, but preference given to applicants pursuing degrees in aviation-related fields, educational fields or public/community service fields.

Deadline March 1

Mr. Carnes' Bio:

JOSEPH CARNES
1937-2001 

Joe Carnes was a “people person” for his entire life.  Joe was born August 10, 1937 in Toledo, Ohio.  His father was a salesman and his grandfather a senior engineer on the railroad.  Joe attended high school in Bellefontaine, Ohio before moving to New Philadelphia, Ohio prior to his junior year.  An article in the high school “Senior Salute”, written in his graduation year of 1955, sums up Joe’s last two years there:  “In a recent survey, Joe Carnes was selected as having the nicest personality and being the most cooperative student in the senior class.  These two great traits have helped Joe to attain his place as the president of the student council and sports editor for the Central News.  Joe, although attending high school here only in his last two years, has made himself known in that short time.  He was active in football, baseball, tennis and a member of the Science club and vice-president of Hi-Y.  He names sports as his hobby, with baseball coming out on top…..”.  Joe would maintain this strong characteristic of actively helping individuals and community for the rest of his life. 

After high school, Joe joined the Air Force and was an aircraft mechanic for four years.  He returned to Ohio after being discharged to attend Wittenberg University in Springfield and to work part time as a substitute teacher.  While there, he met his future wife, Sandy Townsend, while she was working in a local department store.  They were married in May of 1964.  Joe and Sandy subsequently had four children during their 37-year marriage: Brad, Mike, Jeff and Sherry.  All of the children graduated from Crystal Lake South High School in the 1980’s and are now pursuing successful careers.

Joe had a great sense of humor and a positive outlook on life. These gifts probably allowed Joe to kind of pull himself up by the bootstraps.   While at Wittenberg, the National Guard called and said, “How would you like to join us and go to flight training”.  Joe jumped at the chance to become a pilot with the Air National Guard of Ohio.  After completion of training, he flew the F-100 jet for several years for the Guard.  Shortly after pilot training with the Guard, Joe was hired to be a commercial pilot for United Airlines.  Joe spent most of his career with United in Chicago, living in Crystal Lake, Illinois.  He flew for United from 1966 until he retired in 1997.  During that time Joe served as chair of the Aeromedical Committee for the Chicago pilots and was a line check airman, checking out many new captains and co-pilots.  Joe was very active with the pilot group even after retirement.   He was usually the first one to volunteer to help when a job needed to be done.  There were efforts made for several years to try to get a Retired United Pilots lunch started in McHenry County.  These efforts came to nothing until Joe got involved.  He was the leader that the group required to complete the task.  About 70 retired pilots in the area now attend these quarterly luncheons.

His widow, Sandy Carnes, related another example of Joe’s caring and dedication to me.  As a young father of a growing family in Crystal Lake, Joe was an active member of the local JCs. Sandy said that the JCs had taken on the task of holding a special Olympics that year.  The person who was supposed to chair this task opted out.  Joe, because he would not let such a worthwhile cause fail, took it upon himself to head up the effort.  It was one of the most successful Special Olympics ever held.  During this time in Joe’s life he also refereed high school football, was a little league and Babe Ruth baseball coach and was president of the local Hockey Club. 

Later in his life, Joe became one of the driving forces behind the success of the Raue Center for the Arts here in Crystal Lake.  He was also a Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus, was the Park District Board president and volunteered many hours at a local homeless shelter.  But what was really special about him was that he managed to get those around him involved too.  Joe taught many people how to help others and be active in the community and have a great time doing it. 

Joe’s positive outlook rubbed off on everyone around him.  If you were down in the dumps or mad he could usually pull you out of it.  He seldom had a bad word to say about anyone….if you griped about somebody he would say something positive about them in return.  As many people have mentioned, we need more people like Joe Carnes in this world.

But probably Joe’s biggest attribute and one that we’ll always remember him for was his love of people.  As many of his friends have said, you seldom went anywhere that Joe didn’t know someone.  Joe loved to be around people, talk, joke and laugh.  He was also very caring.

Undoubtedly, Joe was such a happy person because, not only did he have a great wife and family, but he cared for and helped so many people.  Maybe he was showing the rest of us the way to true happiness…what a great legacy for him to leave us.

Written by Rob McCutcheon