Joseph "Joe" William Faber

Joseph “Joe” William Faber, born July 23, 1932, died October 28, 2025. Joe was born to John and Lucille Faber in Early, Iowa. As a boy on the farm, he learned the value of hard work and every possible way to stretch a dollar. The oldest of three children, he welcomed his brother Ed in 1936 and his sister Dolores in 1941. Electricity didn’t reach their home until 1942, a detail Joe loved to mention when recalling his early years in Iowa, often alongside stories involving corn cobs and the Sears and Roebuck catalog.

In high school, Joe began dating Barbara Vernia from the “big city” of Odebolt. Though their early courtship was full of youthful antics, Joe and Barbara’s commitment to each other never wavered, and they married on July 4, 1952. Just a few months later, Joe enlisted in the Air Force. The couple moved frequently during his training, with their longest assignments at March Air Force Base in Perris, California, where their first son, Steve, was born, and Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, where their second son, Tom, was born. Joe served as a radio intercept officer, “listening to the clicks.” He spoke of his service with great affection and fulfillment, often recalling an incident in Anchorage that he helped prevent from becoming something far more dangerous. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1956. The family then moved to Kansas, and after a short stay in Haysville, they settled in Wichita, where son, Dale and daughter, Sherrie were born.

Joe began work at Beech Aircraft in 1956, where he spent the next 40 years in avionics before retiring in 1996. Over the decades, he held many positions, but one constant was his knack for creative problem-solving. Joe had a system for everything and was always eager to build solutions from whatever materials he had on hand, despite, as his family joked, those solutions sometimes becoming more complicated than the original problem.

Joe had a strong commitment to his faith and attended late-night perpetual adoration for decades. He held a lifelong love of sports, playing baseball and basketball as a young man. Through his work at Beech, he discovered golf, which he continued to play well into his 80s. In 2004, he achieved a hole-in-one, and that ball sat proudly on his bar or in his office for the next twenty years. In his younger years, Joe also played the saxophone, and he maintained a deep appreciation for music, especially the classics from Willie, Waylon, Merle, and George.

Joe was a hard-working, creative, and proud man. He had a system for everything, and though those systems became the target of many family jokes over the years, Joe would be happy to know that we’ll remember him with great care and love whenever we turn an object into something other than its intended use, overengineer a solution, or try to save a buck. And he would remind us—don’t take any wooden nickels.

Joe was preceded in death by his wife, Barbara; his two siblings, Ed and Dolores; and a great-grandson, Joshua. He is survived by four children, Steve (Cathy) Faber, Tom (Tricia) Faber, Dale (Stacey) Faber, and Sherrie (Pat) Dohrer; eleven grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Rosary will be at 10:00am and funeral Mass at 10:30, both on Friday, November 7th, 2025, at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Wichita, Kansas, with entombment at Resurrection Cemetery in Wichita, Kansas, immediately following.

Memorials have been established with Friends University – Athletics Fund, Attn: University Advancement, 2100 West University Avenue, Wichita, Kansas 67213 and Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice, 313 South Market, Wichita, Kansas 67202.

Services in care of Downing & Lahey West Mortuary.