Joseph Richard Hirt passed away on October 4, 2018, at the University of Kansas Medical Center, surrounded by family. He was the Joe that we all knew and loved right up until he left us. 

 Joe was born on October 27, 1948, and was a lifelong resident of Shawnee, Kansas.  He attended St. Joseph Elementary School, followed by a brief stint at St. Joseph High School.  His predisposition to follow only the rules he agreed with led to his placement at De La Salle High School in Kansas City, where he played basketball and baseball, graduating in 1966.  Joe then went to Pittsburg State University, which was presumably more accepting of selective rule-followers.  He graduated in 1970, played baseball for the university, and earned a degree in construction management, indicative of his lifelong love of fixing things, which many benefitted from.  He would also break things just to fix them, which some did not benefit from.

 Joe spent the next three decades as a partner in a Hirt family-built sales business in a small storefront in downtown Shawnee, working with his father, brother, and sister.  During this time, he spent countless hours driving between towns in the Midwest, making friends with everyone from the head of the company he was in town to meet to the clerk at the gas station.  He connected with people in a way that made them feel good when they left the conversation.  Simultaneously, he was an amazing husband of 45 years and father to four children, in which his positive and indelible imprint will live on into future generations.

 We can only say that Joe’s life should be measured by its depth, not its length. Those close to Joe know that he is not interested in people sitting around and crying because he left us. He would rather you raise a glass, because that is probably what he is doing right now. In other words, don’t cry because it’s over.  Smile because it happened.

 Joe was preceded in death by his parents, Matt and Martha Hirt and his sister Anne Schweiger.  He is survived by his sister Louise Trader; brother Phil; wife Patricia; children Alyssa, Angela, Jeff, and Anne; and grandchildren Andrew, Aiden, Addison, Ember, Farryn, Hazel, Jack, Lily, and Sara.

 A celebration of life gathering will be held on Friday, October 26, 2018, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 11221 Johnson Drive, Shawnee, Kansas. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the American Heart Association, or in the spirit of Joe, to commit a random act of kindness to a stranger today.