Otis, Joe 1910-1964

OTIS, MCMULLIN, LEHMAN

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 3/7/2013 at 12:39:40

Hawarden Independent of May 21, 1964

Founder Of Otis Radio Here Dies In Council Bluffs
Joe Otis, 54, founder of the manufacturing firm in Hawarden which bears his name, died early Sunday morning at Council Bluffs after a brief illness of complications following an appendectomy May 9.

Funeral services for the former Hawarden city-councilman and park commissioner were held; at 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon at the Cutler chapel in Council Bluffs, Rev. Jack L. Peters officiating: Bluff City Lodge No.71 had charge of Masonic rites at the cemetery at Council Bluffs.

Mr. Otis was a member of the Masonic Blue lodge of Hawarden and the Order of Elks. Served In Navy Joseph Charles Otis was born March 10, 1910, at Casey, Iowa, the son of Roswell Curtis Otis and Mildred Louise McMullin. He attended elementary schools at Casey and Grinnell and Grinnell college.

From 1926 to 1929 Mr. Otis served in the Navy medical corps in the South Pacific. He married Lucille Lehman of Missouri Valley July 19, 1931. Mr. Otis served with the Iowa highway patrol for five years before founding a radio repair and manufacturing plant in Cherokee. In 1947 he moved his company to Hawarden where Otis Radio and Electric was incorporated.

In 1959 Mr. Otis resigned as head of the Hawarden firm to pursue other interests at Council Bluffs. Mr. Otis was listed as an industrialist In Who's Who in the Midwest for 1960-61. He was. a member of the International Electrical Engineers organization.

At the time of his death he was president of Otis Industries of Omaha, manufacturers of air and grease purifiers as well as other articles of his own invention.

He was preceded in death by his father. Survivors include the a son, Robert; his mother, Louise Otis, all of Council Bluffs; four sisters, Mrs. E. M. (Joan) Maddy and .Mrs. E. R. (Helen) Thomas of. Council Bluffs, Mrs. George (Marguerite) Mart and Mrs. A. M. (Wilma) Bonyata of Grinnell; one brother, Roswell C. Otis of Hawarden, and five grandchildren. The widow resides at 517 South First street in Council Bluffs.