Carl "Joe" Buttemeier

Carl Joseph Buttemeier was born in South Dakota to Carl and Edith Buttemeier. With his three sisters Kathleen, Marie, and Rita in a small-town, Joe grew into a fun-loving and curious young man. He graduated from Spearfish High School and enthusiastically attended the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology to earn a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1957.

To be part of our nation’s growing space program, Joe left South Dakota and settled in Southern California to work for Rocketdyne. He then chose to work at Litton Guidance and Controls for 42 years and notably contributed to the Mars Viking Lander successes. He enjoyed his work and always described it as fun. Following his retirement from Litton, Joe worked as an independent contractor and reliability engineer for B/E Aerospace and continued to improve and solve many challenging electrical projects for airlines.

It was love at first sight when Joe met Sylvia and they recently celebrated their 60th Anniversary. They had two daughters, Deborah and Robin, and three grandchildren Alexandra, Analyssa, and Gavin. Family was first for Joe, and he relished taking summer vacations in the station wagon, hiking, fishing, and hopping in the convertible for a Sunday drive to get ice cream together. Joe came home from work every day to have lunch with Sylvia. Together they became quite the foodies and chefs with her picking out complicated recipes and him engineering the completion into a delicious meal. Ever proud of his daughters and grandchildren, Joe made clever toys for them, read to them, talked and walked with them, and was popularly known to be a super fan at each and every one of their activities. Another of his favorite pastimes was walking daily with his beloved family dogs.

His passion for problem solving and achieving best results was not limited to engineering; it was evidenced in all that he did from cultivating amazing organic composting mulch that fed his prize rose garden and remarkable crops of zucchinis and tomatoes, all with environmentally conscious drip irrigation, to organizing miniature Christmas cities with over 100 lit houses and rebuilding his beautiful racing red 1960 Austin Healy convertible.

Joe was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Canoga Park for 62 years. He was a faithful servant of our Lord through his participation every Sunday in the Chancel Choir and he joyfully filled his home with songs and music while practicing for Sunday services and concerts. Joe contributed to the church Outreach, Building, and Parsonage Committees and served on the Staff-Parish Relations Committee. He led scriptures as Lay Leader, and with his ever-generous heart for others, he organized and implemented participation in the Annual Crop Walk to help end hunger. After his move to New Hampshire, Joe joined the Milford United Methodist Church and shared his love of singing with a new congregation.

Joe never met a stranger because he always chatted with people genuinely and quickly became friends with them. His joyful spirit, coupled with his intelligence, kindness, and patience made him the definition of an amazing husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, faithful servant of God, colleague, neighbor, and friend. He will be dearly missed, loved, and celebrated always.

A Celebration of Life will be held on March 11, 2023 at 11:00am in the Milford United Methodist Church, 327 North River Road, Milford, New Hampshire.