Joel F. Boney

Joel F. Boney, 63, passed away on October 12, 2010, ten years after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. His wife and two daughters were by his side at his death In Fort Collins, Colorado. Joel was a very intelligent man with a gentle soul and quick wit. Throughout his life, Joel's calm demeanor, quiet humor and his ability to tell a good story captured the hearts of family, friends and co-workers. His genuine enthusiasm toward how things works was reflected in his ability to explain simply the water flow of toilets and car engines to computer microprocessors. In general, he had a lot of fun engineering. Joel grew up in the hills of southern Ohio along the banks of the Ohio River with his mother and father, Herbert and Berneda Boney and his two older brothers. His mother was a graduate from Marietta College, and his father a WWII veteran and grocery store owner. The hills and hollers in his backyard and his chemistry set provided all the necessary resources to inspire a young mind. During his teenage years, his family moved to Sarasota, Florida where he attended high school, enjoyed clown school for PE, and created a lifetime of fond memories as a young employee of Dairy Queen. He continued his education at the University of Southern Florida with a degree in engineering and later received his masters in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. Joel loved running and hiking in the outdoors. His adventures took him bicycling and traveling to Peru, Canada, Mexico, and Europe as well as hiking in his own backyard of the Rocky Mountains. He liked to work hard, and play even harder. His ability to communicate and to put life into perspective using humor allowed him to write with another coworker about a fictitious customer site visit that after getting a number of marketing memos describing what extraordinary features customers wanted in an upcoming microprocessor. The humorous take of the memo helped some his coworker engineers to view the corporate world a little less seriously. And, of course he helped coworkers and friends to take up bicycling as a lifelong hobby. As a member and manager of several hardware performance teams, Joel was a calming influence that kept a diverse group of people going in the same direction. His quiet leadership left quite a mark on those organizations and the individual team members. They have and will continue to miss him greatly. In Austin, Texas in the 1980's, Joel was a lead architect on the Motorola 6809 and 6805. He was a key contributor to the design of most of the early Motorola MPU's and MCU's, several of which are still in production after 25 years!. His keen attention to details made him an excellent hardware architect and designer. He was a master with floating point numbers and did some nifty cryptography. Aside from the many engineers he's led, Joel helped implement and document the standards for how numbers and exceptions in the use of numbers can be implemented in hardware IEEE 754-1985 and others. These ideas are part of every computer you use. Joel's work accomplishments will outlive us all. In the early 1990's he worked for Solbourne Computer in Longmont, CO then he moved on to Hal Computer Fujitsu in San Jose, California into the mid 1990's. Joel finished his career at Hewlett Packard in Fort Collins, CO. He is survived by his wife of twenty four years, Gloria Ackley with whom he shared many wonderful adventures; his daughters, Robin and Gena Boney; Steve Meehan with his former wife Rebecca Hill and his grandson, Declan Joel Meehan. Also, he is survived by his brothers, David Kathy Boney, Edwin Susan Boney and his nieces and nephews. And his friend of 48 years, Roger Myers. Alzheimer's disease stole the last ten years of Joel's life, but his faithful companions ? his golden girls, Maggie Mae and Dakota helped make each day more bearable with their unending love and devotion, and ensuring his safe arrival home after each run or hike around the neighborhood. His family wants to acknowledge and thank all of the staff of Brookdale Senior Living Claire Bridge Alzheimer's Care and Pathways Hospice for their excellent care and for their warm and caring hearts. Joel's ashes will be taken back to Marietta, Ohio for a family service. A future memorial celebration will be held at his home. Memorial contributions can be made to the Alzheimer's Association, Larimer Humane Society, or the Food Bank for Larimer County in care of Bohlender Funeral Chapel, 121 W. Olive, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524.

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Joel F. Boney

April 21, 1947 - October 12, 2010