Joe Lynch Blackwell, 90, of Lake Wylie, SC, passed away Saturday, May 3, 2025, at Novant Presbyterian Hospital, Charlotte, NC, after a short illness.

The family will receive friends from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday, May 10, 2025, at M. L. Ford & Sons Funeral Home, 4820 Charlotte Highway, Lake Wylie, SC.  A memorial service with Mr. Richard Vinson officiating will follow at 2 p.m. 

Joe was born May 15, 1934, in Homer, LA to the late Wesley Carliss and Ouida Lynch Blackwell. He was an Eagle Scout, a United States Air Force Veteran, a graduate of Louisiana Tech University, and retired from Celanese Americas Corporation.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his sister Yvonne Blackwell Hughes; his brothers, Barry Blackwell and Dale Blackwell; and his brother-in-law James “Bud” Loftin.

Survivors are the love of his life, his wife Margarett Loftin Blackwell; sons Dan Steere (Kim) of Atherton, CA and John Steere of Bastrop, TX; and grandchildren Brittany Steere Paruta (Ryan), Megan Steere, Walker Steere, Katherine Steere, and Andrew Steere as well as numerous nephews, nieces, and extended family.

Joe was a programmer extraordinaire at Celanese and loved every day that he went to work. These were the days when company programmers were responsible for writing all programs used by the company and long before there was software to find programming errors. Joe wrote a graphics program that was used by Celanese before other companies could use graphics in their presentations.  Celanese received a patent for his program, Graphics Productivity Option, and Joe received an Eisenhower Silver Dollar.  Celanese eventually sold the program to IBM.  During his career Joe watched computers go from large to larger and then small to smaller.   He continued to marvel at the computer programming, especially AI, that is being done today.  People who worked with him admired his intelligence, his calm demeanor, his integrity, and his commitment to doing his job well.

Once Joe retired, he embraced every moment of life just as fully as he had his career.  Recently, he often remarked, with a smile, that he had been retired longer than he had worked.

Joe was an enthusiastic ham radio operator, AA4NN, K5GFN, for many years. He was active in the Carolina DX Association, traveled throughout the world on DXpeditions, and made many friends worldwide thanks to amateur radio.

He met his beloved Margarett while they were students at Louisiana Tech.  They reconnected forty years after their last date at Tech and married shortly thereafter.  They enjoyed a fun-filled, loving relationship for twenty-four years.  They loved traveling, enjoyed being with their children and grandchildren, and celebrated life on the shores and in the waters of Lake Wylie.

Joe's warmth, intellect, and deep kindness left a lasting impression on everyone who knew him. He will be dearly missed.

Memorials may be made to the Fay Bergman Charitable Corporation, P. O. Box 5275, Clover, SC 29710 or M D Anderson Cancer Center, P. O. Box 4486, Houston, TX 77210-4486.

M. L. Ford & Sons Funeral Home, Lake Wylie, SC is serving the family of Mr. Blackwell.

To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store.