Joseph Edwin Newman

Joseph Edwin Newman, 70, of Louisville, Kentucky, passed away on March 9, 2026. Born on May 9, 1955, at Stevens Clinic in Welch, West Virginia, near his childhood home in Elkhorn, Joe was the beloved youngest son of Ernest D. Newman and Virginia Blanche Newman. He was named after the biblical Joseph from the book of Genesis. In October 1962, his family moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he lived until September 2009.

As a boy, Joe enjoyed spending time outdoors with his brothers, playing games and working on puzzles indoors, and caring for beloved pets. He cherished memories of his dogs Spark and Tree—the latter discovered by his father as a puppy inside a tree trunk during a hunt—and his cat Peanut. In high school, he thrived in sports, playing baseball, basketball, and football, while also enjoying pool, ping pong, and writing songs and poetry. In seventh grade, he composed both the lyrics and piano music for a song called “Gold Rush,” a source of great pride. He graduated in 1972 after combining his junior and senior years to finish with his friends, including Billy Donovan, Glenn Simon, and Randy Simon, with whom he remained close throughout his life.

Joe was bright and inquisitive, with a natural talent for solving problems and fixing things around the house, skills he learned from his father. He attended Northern Virginia Community College and later earned a baccalaureate degree from Hamilton University. Self-taught in printed circuit board design early in his career, he became a certified Project Management Professional and concluded his working years as a PMP in the Information Technology Department at Walmart. Known for his wonderful sense of humor, compassion, and fierce defense of the vulnerable, Joe possessed a grateful soul and a heart of gold. Family and friends often called him a “leak whisperer” for his remarkable ability to repair plumbing issues, once fixing a persistent flooding problem in their new South Carolina home with a fifty-cent part.

Joe is survived by his wife Debbie Newman, brothers Jerry Newman and Bruce Newman, sister Lorene Shaw, brothers-in-law John Shaw, David Butler, Douglas Butler, and John Koch, and sisters-in-law Sharon Newman, Cathleen Newman, Judy Newman, Sharon Grazioso, Betcei Butler, Sharon Koch, and Amy Butler. He was preceded in death by his parents Ernest D. Newman and Virginia Blanche Newman, his daughter Shelli Newman, his brother David O. Newman, and his brother-in-law Bruce E. Butler.

Dearest Joe, we will love and miss you forever.