On December 21, 2019, Joe Holliday Pitts went to Heaven and is now with his daughter Holly Leah and his parents Frederick Baxter and Pearl Lewis Pitts, sister Rubye Peters, niece Barbara Peters Hobbs and brothers Jack Pitts and Bill Hansford. Joe was born November 14, 1927 in Oklahoma City.  He attended Classen High School where he excelled scholastically and in baseball and basketball.  Upon graduating in 1945, he was offered a scholarship to play basketball or baseball at Oklahoma A. & M. College. He chose basketball so that he could play under Coach Henry Iba. In his freshman year, he was a guard on the 1946 NCAA National Championship team.  His education was interrupted when he was called to military duty in the Army and was sent to Seoul, Korea to serve as an M.P. during the occupation period after WW ll.  Returning to Oklahoma State University in 1948, he continued playing basketball while earning his degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1951.  Completing the R.O.T.C. program, he received his 1st Lieutenant Commission.  During his senior year, he carried 23 hours the first semester and 22 hours the second semester with a 3.45 GPA. He was a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

The Korean War began in 1951 and he was recalled to active duty, promoted to 2 ^nd Lt. and became a Company Commander in the Army Signal Corp.  Upon discharge in 1953, he began his working career at Dow Chemical Company in Freeport, Texas as a Production Engineer.  This began his illustrious 22-year career in the production of magnesium metal.  He then became the Plant Manager of Standard Magnesium in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He built and managed the Extrusion Plant which made anodes and other extruded products, receiving two patents during this period. Joe felt that this was the most rewarding engineering work of his career. Kaiser Aluminum Company purchased Standard and Joe became the General Manager of Kaiser Magnesium Division.  Next, as President, he managed the design and construction of the American Magnesium Company in Snyder, Texas to produce magnesium metal and chlorine from brine wells in West Texas.  During this time, he made trips to Europe and Russia as he served a term as the 'President of the International Magnesium Association'.

Joe began his second career of 27 years as President of Poe & Associates which is a Consulting Engineering Company headquartered in Oklahoma City. This company had branch offices in McAlester, Lawton, Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  They also had offices in Wichita and Topeka, Kansas and Dallas Texas.  With Joe's superior management skills along with excellent managers, engineers and technicians, Poe & Associates became the leading Civil Engineering Consulting firm in Oklahoma. He retired from Poe & Associates in 2002.

During his career, Joe was chosen the 'Outstanding Engineer in Management' by the Oklahoma Society of Professional Engineers.  He served a term as President of the 'Consulting Engineers Council of Oklahoma' and was a director in that organization for the following three years.  In 1998 he was elected a 'Fellow' in the 'American Consulting Engineers Council'.  Joe enjoyed serving on the Oklahoma Central Credit Union Board for many years.  He became a Construction Arbitrator in 1999 and decided cases of varying sizes in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas until 2014.

Joe began playing tennis when he was 45 years old and only stopped playing at 80 years old because of an injury to his spine.  He enjoyed the competition of tennis and won many singles, mixed-doubles and men's-doubles tournaments.  Joe and his partner, Dick Land, won many tournaments together, notably the 2004 USTA National Men's 75 Indoor Doubles Championship, receiving the coveted "Gold Ball" Trophy. They also won Gold Medals at the National Senior Olympics in 2007.  Joe was inducted into the Oklahoma Tennis Hall of Fame in 2008.

In Joe's last text message, he expressed his love for his family who is his wife of 70 years Mary Margaret Petillo Pitts, daughter Becky and her husband Greg Tuck, granddaughter Crissy Tuck, grandson Crosby and his wife Lauren Tuck and great grandsons Nate Holliday, Cole Ray and Rowen Hall Tuck.

His Celebration of Life Service and Reception will be held on March 7th at 1:00 pm at Stanleys Funeral Home in Tulsa.  Instead of honoring Joe's memory with flowers at his Service, the family asks that sympathy be expressed by doing something kind for someone, as Joe would do.