Joseph Michael Dinneen

Joseph Michael Dinneen, 58, a lifetime resident of Lowell passed peacefully at The Merrimack Valley Hospice Home, Haverhill, on Monday evening, January 23, 2012, following a lengthy illness with Pick's Disease (frontotemporal dementia.) He was the beloved husband of Bonni Licciardo Dinneen. Born in Lowell on July 6, 1953,he was the youngest son of the late Edward and Mary (Healy) Dinneen, he was educated in the Lowell schools. A 1971 graduate of Lowell High School, he attended Northshore Community College and Northeastern University.
Joe was an active member of the National Fire Protection Association; New Hampshire Signalmens Association; The International Association of Arson Investigators; The Fire Protection Association of Massachusetts; and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and enjoyed many acquaintances with the Lowell, New Hampshire and Boston City Fire Department personnel. Further, he was a life member with the National Garden Club, Inc. organization. He was, until the time of his passing, the New England Region Chairman of the annual National Garden Club, Smokey Bear/Woodsy Owl Poster Contest, promoting fire safety in the area elementary schools, and former co-President and founding member of Curbs and Cobblestones Garden Club, Lowell. Joe also had an active interest in the historic preservation of Lowell's buildings, and with his wife Bonni, restored the James W. Mort estate on Christian Hill.
It was Joe's fond desire to perpetuate the education and awareness of fire safety to youth through the annual Smokey Bear/Woodsy poster contest sponsored by the National Garden Clubs in participation with the US Forestry Service.
Until his illness, Joe was an active communicant of St. Michael Parish, and former member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Joe is survived by his wife Bonni, stepson, Christopher Richard Cryan and wife Ania, two grandchildren, Benjamin Jackson Cryan and Nicholas Anthony Cryan of Dudley, MA; and stepson, Timothy David Cryan of Astoria , New York.
From the Dinneen family of seven, Joe is survived by his brothers, Edward "Ted" Dinneen of York, ME, and Robert Dinneen of Lowell; his sisters, Carole Miller and husband Robert of South Carolina, Kathryn Dinneen of No. Reading, Gail Gould of North Carolina, and the late Patricia Dinneen Sears of Rydal, PA. He also leaves his nephews Sean Dinneen, Timothy Dinneen, Matthew Gould and Maj. Harry Sears, Jr. US Army, Ret., nieces Shealagh Dinneen Soares, Ashley Gould, Paige and Abigail Miller and Dr. Brenda Sears. He was Godfather to his nephew Sean Dinneen, of Plymouth, Martina Marie Hancock of Richardson, TX, and Leanne LeMarche of Lowell.