By Warren Stutesman
Joe Stone, hunter, trapper, fisherman, logger, carpenter,
coach and politician. A man that represents the life style of those in Oscoda
County.
Married to his wife Alice they are a Christian family
attending church regularly.
When a young man, in 1969, Joe moved to Luzerne with his
family. He studied at Mio AuSable High for his secondary school teachings.
Joe played both baseball and football while in high school
starting him on a path that would later become coaching.
Earlier in life, yet after school, Joe worked in the woods as
a logger, he worked as a carpenter and he worked at Glens Market as well. Then
he worked in the building department as inspector for Oscoda County. Joe is
currently the building inspector for Montmorency County which he started doing
twenty two years ago.
Joe ran for the Board of Oscoda County Commissioners and
served there for fourteen years, four of them as the chair person.
During this time Joe decided to coach High School football
which he did starting in 1994 and continuing for the next twenty plus years.
Joe also coached some track and was assistant coach for the Baseball team for a
while.
Mr. Stone is the chair for the AuSable Valley Community
Mental Health Board on which he has served for over twenty years. Joe is also
the President of the Community Mental Health Board of Michigan, for which he
has to travel to Lansing several times a month.
In his spare time Joe also builds handicap ramps for the
veterans in our area that are in need, getting support from organizations such
as the Mio Dummy Club.
He has recently helped to found the AuSable Valley Gun Owners
Association. This group is currently in the process of acquiring land to put in
a shooting range here in Oscoda County. Joe said that he hopes that they can
get enough property so that a one thousand foot range can be accommodated.
Joe Stone is definitely one busy individual, giving back to
the community that he loves.
