Joel Chandler Haverfield came into the world Dec. 19, 1950, to Joyce and Robert Haverfield as a Christmas baby and left the world Christmas morning, Dec. 25, due to a massive heart attack. Joel loved the forests and landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and became an avid outdoorsman from a very young age. He met the love of his life Kim Sandberg while attending the University of Montana, where he graduated with a degree in forestry. Kim and Joel married in 1979 and later had four daughters. Jethelyn (Paul Harrington), Franka (deceased), Signe (Nathan Parent) and Braunwyn (Daniel Korbel).
Joel worked for over 28 years for the Idaho Department of Lands in Orofino, where he set up timber sales on school endowment lands. He also spent countless backbreaking hours every summer fighting wildfires throughout the Rocky Mountain West.
Joel had a poet’s soul and was an excellent violinist. He also played viola and piano and was learning to play the cello before his untimely death. In support of the performing artists that were his wife and daughters, Joel could be found playing in the pit orchestras of Lewiston and Clarkston high schools and for the Civic Theater. He also managed the stages for innumerable local performances. He was always willing to lend a hand.
Joel was an avid reader, which is a trait that he instilled in his daughters. No subject was out-of-bounds, and he was especially fond of books about history, physics and the natural world. He joined the United States Army in his thirties and toured the world with his National Guard deployments. Shortly before his death he had just finished an eleven-day cruise to Panama, a country he desperately wanted to see again.
Joel was a wonderful father and grandfather and was devoted to supporting the lives and education of his children and grandchildren. He was also a life-long member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served a mission as a young man in Philadelphia. He will be missed more than anything.
He is preceded in death by his father Robert Amos Haverfield and daughter Franka Elizabeth Haverfield.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 5, at the Clarkston LDS church; luncheon to follow. If you have a funny story or would like to remember him, please join us.
