We just found out today about your passing. We are so sad to have miss your funeral. We both have changed our cell phones so many times. We should keep in touch more!

You sure lived a long great life and were loved by so many! We know you are in a better place now and please give our dad a huge for us. We will sure miss you. I am glad you were our "Grandpa Joe".

Teddi & Reeni

Tribute to Joseph Kella
12/30/22-2/4/12
By: Jean (Grear) Warren

Family. They come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they? All different but all the same, too. Family, the people who are always there for you. Once in a while, if you’re really lucky, you can have more than one family growing up. My family, the Grear’s, and the family next door, the Kella’s were two of the lucky ones. They shared their families like you would share a cup of sugar with a

Tribute to Joseph Kella
12/30/22-2/4/12
By: Jean (Grear) Warren

Family. They come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they? All different but all the same, too. Family, the people who are always there for you. Once in a while, if you’re really lucky, you can have more than one family growing up. My family, the Grear’s, and the family next door, the Kella’s were two of the lucky ones. They shared their families like you would share a cup of sugar with a neighbor. They were, in fact, neighbors, friends, confidants…family. I don’t think there was anything they wouldn’t do for each other.
As kids, Ted, Dan, Liz, Matt, my sister, Sharon, my brother, Jim, and I were always aware that they had a welcoming family to turn to in either home. A parent to offer comfort, advice, something to eat, or just a cup of coffee and a chat. A family.
Joe Kella and my dad, Ellis Grear, were best friends. They shared work sometimes in the gardens or the current project one would be working on and certainly some good times and lots of laughter. I love the story of the “post-reception party” that went on after my wedding…47 ½ years ago…when late in the evening, my dad decided he really needed to lay down before he fell down and he just went to bed. Joe, who had been pointed down the hill towards home, could not believe that his buddy would have deserted him like that. Joe wandered around the house knocking on the windows, calling for him. Sorry I missed that party!
The tractor wars…what can I say…they probably drove Bea and my mom crazy putting so many hours into making those tractors run like tops. We all know you had to look good mowing, plowing snow or gardening, right?
The cook-outs, the gardens, the poker games, the coffee…how many gallons and gallons of coffee did the four of them share over the years? Dad has been gone 25 years and mom 13 years now, but I can still see and hear the four of them sitting around their kitchen tables telling stories and laughing.
The last 3 ½ years have been a real ‘gift’ for Joe Kella’s family. Having been told he wouldn’t last 5 days at the time, he proved to all he still had some things to do. I called Bea and Joe a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday…the day after Liz’s daughter, Linnea, left after visiting for a few days with them. The pleasure in their voices as they talked about her visit was evident. I hadn’t heard that much animation from Joe in a long time. He loved his family and loved spending time with them…talking and laughing over a cup of coffee. Matt told me that when his dad spoke of his father, he couldn’t remember what he looked like. Today, Joe is looking on his father’s face once again.
Bea, Dan, Matt, Liz and Ted…thank you for being my family, too. And I thank Joe for being my second Dad…we will miss him. He was family.

Joe, I will miss your quiet, gentle ways that always made me feel I had a safe place to go no matter the occasion. Thank you for being my Dad's best friend. He loved you and so do I. You and Bea were the best "other parents" a girl could ever have. I love you both and always will.

Sharon

I would like to ask a question.
What is meant by the “Greatest Generation”?
From my view, the true representative of that expression is not JFK. It is not Walter Cronkite. It is not Orson Wells. It is not J.D. Salinger. It is not even Jonas Salk.
Let me recount a true American story.
In 1922, a baby boy was born in the small town of Walhalla in remote northern Michigan to two recent immigrants from Lithuania. This couple came to escape

I would like to ask a question.
What is meant by the “Greatest Generation”?
From my view, the true representative of that expression is not JFK. It is not Walter Cronkite. It is not Orson Wells. It is not J.D. Salinger. It is not even Jonas Salk.
Let me recount a true American story.
In 1922, a baby boy was born in the small town of Walhalla in remote northern Michigan to two recent immigrants from Lithuania. This couple came to escape the chaos, the violence, the tyranny of their birth country. They came to pursue the desires held by many other immigrants of that time. They came to find the American Dream. I ask you, was it a coincidence that this couple settled in a town named after Heaven of Norse mythology.
When this young boy was only seven years old, he had to take on some of the responsibility of ‘man of the family’. His father had passed away, leaving a mother with seven children at the beginning of the Great Depression. A few years later, he left middle school to further help support his family.
At the age of 16, he left home for good. For the next two years, he worked as part of the Civilian Conservation Corp planting millions of trees. Every visit of the Baldwin and other northern Michigan areas triggers wonder and appreciation of the raw beauty of the woods. I ask myself; ‘What was it like working these area?’ ‘How barren would this area look today if it had not been for those thousands of young, unmarried men replanting the trees cut down to rebuild Chicago fifty years before?’
In 1943, at an age we today consider to still be a child, when the tyranny, violence, and chaos of his parent’s birth land invaded the American shores, our 5’ 8” 145 lb. child took up arms and went to Europe to help defeat this threat. During the next two years, this young man saw and experienced unimaginable acts of inhumanity.
In 1945, a young 23 year old, who saw destruction, devastation and had more life experiences than most of us have our entire lives, put down his gun and returned home.
And then he built.
He built a family with a sweet, gentle, generous Southwest Michigan girl he had met prior to the war.
He built a home that physically embodies and envelops the joys, pains, love, and comfort that a family needs to flourish.
He, along with the love of his life, built four children. These children grew up to be successful, but more importantly, very good people.
He built a garden where beautiful and wholesome things were lovingly nurtured and raised, . . . and then given away.
He built a reputation for strength of will. After falling off scaffolding chasing a pack of cigarettes, he realized, “These things are dangerous for me.” Without patches, without 12-step programs, without a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry, he quit smoking . . . by just deciding to do so.
He built trailers, boats, tractors, and hundreds of other useful items.
He built an appreciation of nature in those around him through quiet hours of companionship when fishing and hunting with friends and family. Any half blind, arthritic, recent heart-attack victim that bags two deer with one shot can only inspire respect and awe.
He built friends, admirers, relations, . . . and stories. Some of which are true.
He built homes for many other area families, Washington School, and the Cook Nuclear Plant.
He built Southwest Michigan.
He built a post-War American culture.
He built America into an economic and political force.
Through quiet example, Through gentle guidance, Through unheralded strength, Through humility:
Through a life.
He built a legacy.
He built the American Dream.
Joe Kella IS the Greatest Generation.
His leaving us creates a big hole in each of our lives. His leaving us creates a significant hole in our culture.
Joe, we will miss you more than many of us realize.

Bea, Matt, Liz, and Dan...your family has always meant so much to me. The memories of our two families and the good times we had and the fun we shared will be with me forever. People say that when our loved ones pass, they are in a better place. That is hard to accept when we want that better place to be here with us. Joe and Ted will always have a place in my heart with the rest of my family. Love you all. Tom and Jean

My father was a great man, and my best friend. I will forever miss him and keep him in my memories daily, everything I know, I have learned from him. He taught me so many things, from woodworking, building houses, how to hunt and fish. Everytime I do something I will remember him. We were talking about going bluegill fishing this spring just days before he passed, and that "trip" will be so very hard for me this year!
Dad, I

My father was a great man, and my best friend. I will forever miss him and keep him in my memories daily, everything I know, I have learned from him. He taught me so many things, from woodworking, building houses, how to hunt and fish. Everytime I do something I will remember him. We were talking about going bluegill fishing this spring just days before he passed, and that "trip" will be so very hard for me this year!
Dad, I love you and will always cherish the wonderful time we have spent together, building things, remodeling houses, our wonderful hunting trips up north and all the fishing trips up north when I was young, fishing lake Michigan in later years and those fanstastic bluegill trips.
I miss my father dearly. And will try to live up to his expectations and will take care of Mom!
I love you Dad, Forever.
Your son, Matt

Matt, "Mom" & Family,
So sorry to hear of Joe's "Dad" passing.
You both were very god to me.
Love, Val

I would like to express my sincere sympathy to the family during this difficult time. My parents Lloyd (Moe) and Marian were friends with Joe and Bea, and I always admired their family.

Several years ago, Joe Chenny Grear and I moved into a garage to establish voting rights in a small gerrymandered area that the city of Benton Harbor was creating to try to annex the Whirlpood Admin area into the city. We were blessed with several great breakfasts that families sympathetic to our efforts provided.
I was able to help get baby Elizabeth to sleep some nights.
We had an exchange student grom the Netherlands, Jellie Vissers, who was blessed by the neighborhood.
We had a pony, Cromwell, who liked to get out of our enclosure. Joe was good at helping us catch him.

Bea,
So sorry to hear of Joe's passing. He was such a nice man and always a good neighbor to the Sineni's and the Damico's. We will always remember your 'card' get-togethers with both of our folks and all the laughs you had with them, the Grears, and the Humes. You guys always had such a good time together.
Phil and I are out of town for a while so we are unable to attend his service.
Again, you have our sympathy.

Love,
Pat & Phil