1932 – 2013

WATERVILLE — Joseph Jean Marie Plante, of 39 Barnet Ave., passed away peacefully, Feb. 20, at Inland Hospital, at the age of 80.

He was the son of Dominique Plante and Marie (Ferland) Plante and was born in St-Evariste, Quebec, Canada, on July 28, 1932. He attended Notre Dame Institute in Alfred, from 1945 to 1946, graduated from Waterville High School in 1949 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Maine Maritime Academy in 1952.

Joseph had a distinguished career in engineering, spanning 41 years. He served as a marine engineer for the United Fruit Co. from 1952 to 1954 and served in the U.S. Navy aboard aircraft carriers from 1954 to 1956. He then joined the Bethlehem Steel Co. in 1957 as a senior engineer and worked at their Quincy shipyard until 1964.

He joined Stone and Webster Engineering Corp., later moving to Denver with his family in 1974, where he eventually became the senior engineering manager at their Denver office. In 1988 he returned to their Boston office as the senior manager of projects. While at Stone and Webster, he worked on a variety of construction projects, which included nuclear, coal, geothermal and hydroelectric power plants.

He was the loving husband of Teresa A. Plante, whom he married on Dec. 29, 1956, at Notre Dame Church in Waterville. He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather, and he and Teresa raised a family of four children while residing in Braintree and Peabody, Mass., Littleton, Colo., and Franklin, Mass. He retired to Naples, Fla., in 1993 with Terry and permanently settled back in Waterville in 2006.

Joseph was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. He was intelligent and well-read, and loved a wide range of music, including modern, classical, opera, folk and religious hymns. He was the consummate engineer and started a tradition that has produced three generations of engineers.

Most importantly, however, his greatest joys involved his family, his friends and his colleagues from Stone and Webster, where he maintained close personal relationships all his life. His main concern was for the welfare of others, and he always helped those in need.

He is survived by one sister, Madeleine Roy; two sisters-in-law, Carmen Plante and Cecile Grenier, both of Waterville; two brothers-in-law, Rosaire Jalbert of Lewiston and Marcel Jalbert of Vernon, Vt. He is also survived by his sons, Paul and his wife, Lou Ann, of Yarmouth and Thomas and his wife, Susan, of Waterford, Conn.; his daughters, Celeste King of San Juan Bautista, Calif., and Michelle Snicer and her husband, Gregory, of Fremont, N.H.; six grandchildren, Carolyn, Mark and Benjamin Plante, Nicholas and Sean King and Christina Snicer; as well as many dear nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews.

He was predeceased by his wife of 55 years; his parents; his two sisters, Pearl Vashon and Carmel Pinnette; and his two brothers, Germain and Rene Plante.