Joe H. McCullough

March 31, 1947 — Oct. 6, 2023

Joe McCullough, 76, was born March 31, 1947, to two very loving parents, Mack and Beverly, in Wenatchee, Wash. His beloved Grammy Bert lived with them during Joe’s early years and she was very special to him. That relationship gave Joe a love and respect for older grammy types in his life.

Joe’s early years were full of backyard baseball, cars, school, cars, water skiing at Lake Chelan, cars, camping trips and more cars. He and his dad loved the times they spent together working on their latest project. Beverly supplied the treats.

During his high school years, Joe joined DeMolay, a Masonic youth organization, and he was a very accomplished drummer in various bands.

Joe attended and graduated from George Fox College, where he met Myra on a choir tour to Southern California. They became great friends and the rest is history. They were married during spring quarter of their senior year and immediately after graduation, moved to Muncie, Indiana where Joe got his master’s degree in guidance and counseling at Ball State University, which I’m sure was a huge shock to all of his high school teachers.

After that graduation, he and Myra moved back to the Pacific Northwest in search of teaching/counseling jobs and Mack said, after explaining there was no way he could live on a teacher's salary, “Why don’t you sell mobile homes till you find a teaching job?” Again, the rest is history. Joe and Mack worked in sales and service for Star Motors and Mobile Homes until 1979 when they launched out on their own and established McCullough Home Center.

During that time, Desiree’ was born in 1975 and Damon in 1978. Even though Joe was working long hard hours, he was never too tired to spend time with his kids and loved every minute of their growing-up years. He loved the Disneyland trips, their sports events or whatever they were involved in. He just loved being involved in their lives.

His love of cars was a constant enjoyment, and he and Damon spent countless hours in the garage working on countless cars. What one of them wouldn’t think up, the other one would. He belonged to the Moses Lake Classic Car Club and took his ’50 Chev to many many shows and enjoyed talking to other car guys and getting more ideas for more projects.

Joe and his family belonged to the Moses Lake Alliance Church for 45 years and served in about every area of ministry, from serving on the executive board to sweeping floors. Then in 2022 they started attending Moses Lake Christian Church and found a new church home, which has been a great fit for us.

Joe was also active in the Masonic Lodge during his earlier years and met a lot of outstanding men during that time.

McCullough Home Center existed from 1979-2012 and then it was time to retire from that “temporary job.” Then the traveling began and travel they did, building up many memories from bucket list trips. The last one was to Scotland in July of ’23. Joe would always seek out and find fun and interesting things to do wherever they traveled. He was the best travel buddy ever.

Joe loved action and even throughout the last two years of his battle with esophageal cancer, he kept busy with projects and things he wanted to finish up. His greatest joy was the times spent with family and friends.

Joe had an unwavering faith that if his life here on earth would end sooner than any of us wanted it to, he knew that heaven was his final destination. He accomplished that goal Friday, Oct. 6, and was surrounded by all of his family. It had been a long two-year journey for him but he walked it all with amazing strength.

He was preceded in death by his parents Beverly and Mack McCullough and survived by his wife Myra, daughter Desiree’ McCullough and son Damon and Amy McCullough of Moses Lake.

There will be a memorial celebrating Joe’s life Oct. 20, 2023, at 2 p.m. at Moses Lake Christian Church at 200 Yonezawa Blvd., Moses Lake, Wash.

The Joe McCullough Memorial Fund has been established at Moses Lake Christian Church. To contribute go to mlcc.us.

Please express your thoughts and memories for the family at www.kayserschapel.com. Arrangements are under the care of Kayser's Chapel of Memories.