Roll Call Tribute

Published in The Washington (DC) Post on July 10, 2016

JOSEPH MERCER GREADY




JOSEPH MERCER GREADY

Of Bethesda, MD, passed away peacefully on June 14, 2016. Joseph was born in 1925 in Wills Point, Texas, to Louise Cosnahan Gready and Lawrence Smith Gready, a cotton buyer. He had three siblings, Lawrence, Frank, and Cynthia.

Joseph earned undergraduate degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from Texas A & M and Oklahoma University. He enlisted in the Navy''s V-12 program in 1944 and later served as a ground school instructor at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. After leaving the Navy in 1946, Joseph worked as a Sales Engineer for American Chain and Cable Company (ACCO) in West Texas. Joseph met the love of his life and future wife, Margaret (Peggy) Lynne Rich, in Odessa, Texas in 1954. They were married for 55 years.

Joseph moved to New York City in 1954 where he worked for the Export Department of ACCO, traveling frequently to Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba. In 1958, Joseph earned a Master of Business Administration degree from New York University. Joseph''s work for ACCO took him and his family to Houston, Texas, Denver, Colorado, and Washington, DC, in successive sales- and marketing-related positions. He retired from ACCO after 33 years, in 1982, and began a second, 25-year stock and bond sales career, from which he retired in 2009.

Joseph is survived by four children, Ann Westerman, Margaret Power, Mary Page Hogan and Mercer Gready. Joseph is also survived by five much beloved grandchildren, Paul, James, David, Anna and Jackson. Joseph was a long-time member of the Rockville Rotary Club, where he served a term as Club President. He was a member of Potomac United Methodist Church in Potomac, Maryland. He was widely considered a true Southern gentleman. Private services are planned in Bethesda, Maryland and Wills Point, Texas.