[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 44 (Thursday, March 29, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SHAVER RETIRES AS CHIEF DEPUTY CORONER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. PAUL E. KANJORSKI

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 29, 2001

  Mr. KANJORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Joe 
Shaver, who is retiring after 32 years as chief deputy coroner of 
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
  Joe was born in 1934 in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, graduated from Wyoming 
Memorial High School in 1952, and graduated from the McAllister School 
of Mortuary Science in 1953. He began his long career by helping out 
parking cars and handling other chores at Metcalfe's Funeral Home in 
Wyoming while he was still in high school, and he served an 
apprenticeship at the Luther M. Kniffen Funeral Home in Wilkes-Barre 
from 1954 to 1957.
  From 1957 to 1963, he served in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps, 
including active duty in West Germany from 1957 to 1959. In 1959, Joe 
became a partner in the business that was renamed the Metcalfe & Shaver 
Funeral Home, and he became the owner in 1986. He was recalled to 
active duty with the Army from 1960 to 1961 due to the Berlin crisis 
and served an additional year at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
  In 1969, Dr. George Hudock Jr. was appointed coroner following the 
death of the previous coroner, and his first act was to appoint Joe as 
his chief deputy. At that point, Joe had already served as a deputy 
coroner for six years and had been assisting Dr. Hudock with autopsies 
for three years. In Joe's 32 years as chief deputy coroner, he has 
assisted in more than 2,800 autopsies.
  While Joe's memberships and affiliations are too numerous to list 
them in full, a few examples will serve to show his long history of 
community involvement. He is a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church 
in Kingston and has served on its council for several years, in 
addition to having served in the choir. He is a member and past 
president of the Rotary Club of Wyoming and a Paul Harris Fellow, a 
member and past president of the Wyoming Business Club, a life member 
of Wyoming Hose Company No. 1, and a member of VFW Post 396 in Wyoming, 
Irem Temple in Wilkes-Barre and Mountain Grange 567 in Carverton.
  Joe and his wife, the former Janice Ludwig, were married in 1962. 
They have two children and three grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to call to the attention of the House of 
Representatives the long history of Joe Shaver's service to the 
community, and I wish him and his wife the best in his retirement.

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