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Professor Joseph (Joe) Wayne De Bolt, Sr. died peacefully at the Laurels of Mt. Pleasant on October 11 in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan at the age of 77.

Funeral Services for Joe will be held at Clark Family Funeral Chapel in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, on Monday, October 16, 2017, at 2 p.m. with Father Gregory Joyce of St. Vladimir Orthodox Church officiating. Interment will follow in Riverside Cemetery. A Luncheon will be held at Reflections Reception Center following the Committal Service. The family will receive friends on Sunday, October 15, from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Visitation will continue the day of the service from 1 p.m. until the time of the service. Memorial contributions may be made to HATS. Envelopes will be available at the funeral chapel.

Joe is survived by his wife of 17 years, Natalya, his step-son Stanislav; his children by his first wife (Denise Gallagher) Joseph W. De Bolt, Jr. (Racine) of Randallstown, Maryland and step-granddaughter Cassandra Turner and Michelle (De Bolt) Turpin (Dave) of Shepherd, Michigan and his grandson Connor S. Turpin as well as several nieces and nephews in Ohio. He is preceded in death by his mother Delores (De Bolt) Blake-Wise and his father Joseph W. Whitlatch and his sister Melba (Blake), his brothers Jay and Jerry Blake, all of Sebring, Ohio and his grandmother Elizabeth (De Bolt) Albaugh-Matthews. Joseph was born on December 23, 1939, in Sebring, Ohio. He was raised by his grandmother until he went to college. He attended Freeport High School in Ohio where he graduated valedictorian. He attended West Liberty State College in West Virginia graduating A.B. Cum Laud in 1961, with a major in Social Science and minor in music. (He worked his way through college playing in dance bands and with Rock and Roll bands throughout the tri-state area.)

He continued his education at Kent State University (Graduate Study in Sociology) and received his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Connecticut. His first position was as assistant professor of sociology at Central Michigan University where he worked his way up to full professor. He taught for 42 years in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work. His special interests were Russian Society, Teaching of Sociology and American Society. He was a member of Wabon Lodge #305, Free and Accepted Masons, Mt. Pleasant 1988 to date; member of Elf Khurafeh Temple of the Shrine, Saginaw and 32nd degree, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Bay City, Michigan. He was chair and board member of many organizations, including the National Association of Scholars; CMU departmental Five Year Planning Committee, Department Graduate Program Committee, to name a few. Over the years he attended many and varied conferences on Russian study and Teaching Introductory Sociology.

He became more involved in Russian Society after doing a Soviet-American Peace Walk through the Ukraine in 1988 (a month-long walk with 250 Americans and 250 Russians; his first time ever using a tent and sleeping bag...he came home much stronger). He was Faculty Adviser for the CMU Russian Exchange Project (1989 to 1993). He was Organizer of humanitarian and educational aid to Russia. He was adviser to Russian Exchange Project (where American students and faculty exchanged visits with students and faculty from Minsk, Oryol, and Moscow (1990-1993), President of National Science Fiction Research Association (1979-1981). He also wrote poetry as well as his other notable writings.

His work in the Science Fiction area included writings with sections in The Anatomy of Wonder: A Guide to the Literature of Science Fiction (with John R. Pfieffer); Editor of The Happening Worlds of John Brunner; Critical Exploration in Science Fiction (1976) and Ursula K. Le Guin, Voyager to Inner Lands and Outer Space (1979). He participated in many roundtable discussions, panels, lectures (he was invited to Jerusalem, Israel to speak on “Science Fiction and Society”).

He was working on a colossal study of Russian history and stories of the Russian people, Russian Lives. His writings are too numerous to list all of them. Just know that Joe demonstrated an unbiased and wide outlook on life and shared himself with his vitality, jokes, and kind-hearted humor.

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