Joseph Daniel McLaughlin was born May 3rd, 1943 to Joseph and Irene McLaughlin and was the oldest of six children. He was married to Mary McLaughlin, formerly Foster, for more than fifty years and had two children, Mary and Daniel, and later five grandchildren; Bethany, Ethan, Chase, Pierce, and Sarah.

He grew up in Illinois, but after one brutal winter, decided to move to Ventura, California, with his wife and children, where the sun was always out and they could see the ocean. In between work and school, Joe would take his family camping. He worked as an accountant for Shell Oil until they closed the plant, and were relocated to Houston, Texas, in the seventies, where he lived the rest of his life. He remained with Shell until retiring in 1991.

He loved any sport with a ball and while you could never change the channel when a game was on, he loved watching his grandkids play more than any other. All of the basketball, soccer, and football games he attended probably balanced out the number of animated movies he saw that he couldn't remember the characters' names. He loved his family, and there isn't a word for how much we will miss him.