Recipient of the 2004 Russell L. Paxton Award

Joseph A. Diachenko

From the January 2006 issue of The Fossil

IN MEMORIAM

Joseph A. Diachenko

Fossil Joseph A. Diachenko, 70, of LaPlata, Maryland died on October 25, 2005. Joe joined NAPA in 1983 and served as President in 1990-91. He published Gazebo News.

Joe served with the air force in Germany during the Korean War, and was buried in Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery in Cheltenham, Maryland. Joe is survived by his wife Sandra, three children, and two much-loved grandchildren. Joe's grandchildren were often featured in Gazebo News.

He passed away on the first birthday of his granddaughter Anastasiya. Joe's son J. [Joseph] Damien Diachenko has also been active as an amateur publisher and distributed a final issue of his father's Gazebo News in NAPA's December 2005 mailing.

Joe was a patriot as well as a family man. He believed strongly in the right to bear arms and the duty to defend liberty. He could write with belligerence of opposing views, but he could also write with great tenderness, both of fellow human beings and of animals. Joe's strong sense of humor was also amply revealed in his writing.

Joe will be missed in the amateur ranks.