Joseph J. Box

Dr. Joseph J. Box, 101, passed away peacefully at home on February 4, 2025 with family by his side.

Joe lived a life that was fulfilled, and on purpose and given with service. He was a family man who also served his wider community and country in myriad ways. He was a dedicated husband, dad, grampa, son, brother, uncle, friend, mentor, and advocate to multiple generations of people.

Born in Providence in 1923 to Maria and Luigi Box, aptly on Joy Street in Providence, Joe was a man of extraordinary joy, vitality and generosity.

Raised in a tight-knit southern Italian immigrant family on River Avenue and surrounded by gardens full of figs trees, pear trees, chestnut trees and vegetables, Joe often credited his father with his sense of ethics and his mother with his deep appreciation for life. He treasured his time spent with Maria picking blueberries, foraging for mushrooms, canning tomatoes, and listening to her hum. He often praised her intuition and sagacity.

Joe had so many jobs starting when he was 6 years old that you could barely drive anywhere in Rhode Island without him pointing to a spot and telling you a story about how he had worked there: there was the time that 6 yr. old Joe set up an unauthorized newspaper stand with his brother Al in front of the Biltmore Hotel in Providence. When cops came and chased him, he ran under the bushes in Burnside Park while onlookers shouted, "Leave the kid alone!"

When he was a jelly-donut maker in Cranston he made friends with hundreds of yellow jackets who crawled up and down his grape-jelly covered arm licking the nectar without delivering so much as a single sting.

And when he worked as a bobbin boy at Lorraine Mills - hauling bobbins in carts to women working the looms - Joe would jump in and re-tie broken threads on the looms to save the women time, as they were paid by piecework.

There was also the time he worked for Adolf the Taylor and burned an iron-shaped scar into a client's trousers.

Above all was the summer of 1941 which he called "the best summer of my life" working as a jazz musician on Block Island.

Joe did not excel in school, as he preferred bowling at the Congress Bowling Alley and playing pool. As a senior in high school he missed so many days of school that his teacher came to the Box home to gently invite him back to school. Joe was so moved by this that he never missed another day of school.

One cold winter Friday as Joe walked through downtown Providence killing time between his lunch and dinner jazz gigs at the Port Arthur Restaurant, he met his friend Red who invited Joe to come up to a dental lab where Red was working so that Joe could warm himself. Joe often described the exact moment when Red opened the door to the lab: Joe was intoxicated by the warmth and the smell of hot wax emanating from the denture molds. Joe went home that night and asked his mom to pack him a lunch on Monday, he was going to work. He showed up to work at the lab Monday morning undaunted by the fact that he had not been hired. He was employed there until he enlisted in the Navy. This began Joe's extraordinary dental career.

Joe served in both the Navy and Marines during WWII as a dental technician and then served 35 years in the RI Air National Guard, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was most proud of his military service.

Thanks to the post WWII Veterans GI Bill, Joe got his GED and attended Providence College, a reality he had never previously imagined. He continued with dental school in Saint Louis.

One week before heading off to dental school he met Janice Drake, a Pembroke student, at a YWCA dance. She was the first and only person he asked to dance that evening. She accepted. They danced all night. Later on that evening when she stood on the running board of his vintage Model A, reached in and tooted the horn, he was smitten.

They married, lived in St Louis and then settled in Pawtucket where they raised their 4 children. Joe loved his family first and foremost. He was a dedicated family man and was proud to work long hours to provide opportunities and education for his kids.

He loved his children unconditionally.

He adored his 5 grandchildren and was always curious about what they were up to. He recently welcomed his first great grand-daughter and marveled at her beauty.

Joe had an old-school home office where he practiced for 65 years - sometimes taking care of 4 generations of family members. He made children comfortable by calling his x-ray machine "Dino the Dinosaur," and he could make the dental chairs go up and down magically by touching his patients' noses.

The office team were family, and he considered his role as a dentist an opportunity to give back to the community. His care was patient-centered.

He and Jan opened their home to many people over the years - their generosity of spirit was legendary. The house was filled with colorful guests.

That generosity and sense of purpose characterized all areas of Joe's life. Over the years Joe served many leadership roles in the RI Air National Guard, RI and National Dental Associations; the Sons of Italy civic organization; and the City of Pawtucket.

His dedication led to numerous professional, humanitarian and civic awards over the years, including having been inducted into the Pawtucket Hall of Fame. Joe was the first recipient of the RI Dental Association's eponymous Dr. Box Everyday Leadership Award, now presented annually to a member of the Rhode Island Dental Association who has demonstrated the highest level of ethics and dedication to the improvement of the art and science of dentistry.

Joe enjoyed traveling. He often recounted stories about the 5-week trip that he and Jan took to Italy in 1980 to visit his relatives. He finally met the family that his parents had left and had never seen again after setting out for life in the USA in the early 1900s.

Joe also traveled widely with the Dental Association as Chief Examiner. Wherever he went, he tried to visit an opera house. On one occasion, he slipped into the back door of the San Francisco Opera House and to his surprise he found Luciano Pavorotti himself auditioning young ladies for La Bohème. Joe was in 7th heaven as he watched the entire audition 3 rows behind Pavarotti. Joe commented on the Maestro's guidance and encouragement for the young singers.

When he served as President of the Sons of Italy Renaissance Lodge, Joe traveled to an Ohio Sons of Italy chapter with his friend Pasquale to learn about the ancient game of Morra. He and Pat then ran a boisterous annual Sons of Italy Morra Tournament for 25 years as a fundraiser for local charities. Because learning to count to 10 in Italian was a prerequisite, many Rhode Islanders became honorary Italian Americans through their participation in the tournaments.

Some of Joe's and Jan's most cherished experiences were their trips to the highlands of Guatemala to provide dental care. As Joe's parents were sharecroppers on a plantation in Italy before immigrating to the US, he saw his dental work in Guatemala - primarily for plantation workers like his parents - as a way of giving back. He spent a month each year in San Lucas Toliman for 17 years, his last trip in 2016 at age 92. His stamina was daunting. He wouldn't leave a remote work location until every person had been adequately treated, often working into the night with a headlamp. He learned Spanish at 75 years old when he started traveling to Guatemala. He cherished when each of his grandchildren could join him on these trips.

Joe's zest for learning was a thread throughout his entire life. His love of reading opened his world. He read widely - from philosophy to presidential biographies to historical fiction to magical realism and spiritual texts. His bookshelves overflowed with all manner of books, and he loved to lend them out.

In his 80s and 90s, Joe had a renaissance. He went back to Providence College to work through the Western Civ curriculum and other classes that caught his fancy. The PC profs admired his unique contributions to class; the young students always wanted to sit by him.

He also began meditating in his 80s and doing yoga in his 90s. He maintained these habits until the end of his life. His yoga practice with Divya was a pillar of his later years.

Joe also went back to work in his late 80s. After having retired for about a week from his own dental practice, he found a job as a mobile dentist serving nursing home residents in Rhode Island. He felt called to this work, bonded closely with his team, and he only stopped at age 96 due to Covid restrictions. He never wore a white lab coat - always turquoise blue. His compassionate bedside manner, as well as his ability to greet people in 3 languages led him to have excellent outcomes treating this population, especially those with dementia.

In his 90s he joined an ongoing poetry class with his former dental patient and then current RI State Poet Laureate Rick Benjamin. Joe wrote freely, easily and his poems often had a humorous twist.

Joe started playing his saxophone again in his 90s, taking weekly lessons and serenading the neighborhood as he often practiced scales and jazz standards with the windows open.

One of the most remarkable things about Joe Box was his capacity not only for lifelong friendships but also his wholehearted embrace of new experiences and new friends. Although he lost many loved ones during the long course of life, he continuously added new friends along the way. His heart became more and more open the longer he lived.

Joe was widely known for his corny jokes. At doctors' offices or in social situations he would say "I think they need a laugh" and would proceed to tell jokes from his wide repertoire. He was content when seeing someone laugh or hearing someone say, "Thanks, I needed that."

Joe loved opera and was instrumental in the founding of the Providence Opera Theater. He enjoyed taking his family to the opera in Providence, Boston and New York.

He loved opera so much that on Saturdays he would sing along to the opera playing on the radio as he worked on his patients. He loved telling the story that on one particular Saturday he performed a root canal as he sang his heart out to La Bohème, his favorite of all time. When the patient was finally able to speak again, they proclaimed, "Ya know, Doc, the most painful thing in this office is your singing."

Joe always had an eye out for talent and was instrumental in helping various young performing artists establish themselves in Rhode Island.

Joe loved to dance and to play golf, bocce and gin rummy. He had a penchant for spaghetti with garden tomato sauce, linguine with clam sauce and bread dipped in olive oil. He relished a good glass of Montepulciano or Vino Espumoso. He took great pleasure in reading outside under the old pear tree, and he delighted in feeding the squirrels who would eat from his hand. He held dear the dogs and cats who were always part of the family.

St. Francis of Assisi was his favorite saint.  Pope Francis was his favorite Pope.  He said The Prayer of St. Francis every single night before going to sleep.

A reverent man, Joe quietly and constantly put his faith into good works and action. He venerated both the human and more than human world.

His positive attitude was legendary and stayed with him until his last breath. Joe's high- spirited ethos, ever-present, seemed to be a through line in his life, and one that buoyed the lives of the world around him.

In the last months of his life Joe told the Hospice Chaplain that he felt complete, that he felt he had lived a beautiful and fortunate life, that he had nothing left unsaid nor undone. He said he felt so lucky for the family he was born into and the one that he raised. He was grateful for his wife, kids, grandkids, extended family, his friends and his work. He felt that life was beautiful, and that God was with him every day. And while he didn't fear death, he also wasn't eager to leave because he was having so much fun here. He said he had no regrets other than selling his 1923 gold Indian Scout motorcycle before going to dental school.

He was a mentor to countless colleagues, friends and family.
He lived by his mother's credo, "Everybody the same, everybody the same."

He was the greatest of the Greatest Generation.

He is predeceased by his wife, Janice D. Box.

He is survived by his son David Box (Diana); his three daughters Sharon Holtkamp, Krista Box (Mathew Riley) and Suzy Box (Harry Adler); his 5 grandchildren Tony, Lindsay, Alex, Nick and Will; and one great granddaughter Stella.

His funeral will be held Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 9:45 AM from Bellows Funeral Chapel, 160 River Road, Lincoln, with a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 AM in the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1081 Mineral Spring Ave, North Providence. Burial with military honors will follow in St. Francis Cemetery, Pawtucket.

Family and friends are invited, and may attend visiting hours on Monday from 4:00 - 7:00 pm

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the following:
Holy Family Home, 5 Gibbs Street North Providence RI 02904 https://saintanthonychurch.org/holy-family-home

and

Hope Health Hospice RI. 1085 N Main St, Providence, RI 02904
https://www.hopehealthco.org/ways-to-give/donatenow/

For directions or to leave a message of condolence, please visit www.bellowsfuneralchapel.com.

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