A Life: Joseph Shattie ‘simply cherished being round folks’

HARTFORD — Some folks haven’t any enterprise teaching youth sports activities. Then there are these like Joseph Shattie who appeared to have been born for the function.

A standout athlete at Rice Memorial High School in Burlington and a Division I baseball participant in faculty, Shattie actually knew the sport of baseball. He would later study to ice skate and coach hockey, whereas additionally officiating youth and highschool video games.

But teaching impressionable youths takes greater than an understanding of the basics and recreation methods.

“He just had a way of connecting with kids,” mentioned Bob Gaudet, a detailed buddy and former longtime head coach of the Dartmouth males’s hockey group. “He was really respected. Joe was a big guy, but a Teddy Bear with a big smile. He had a way of communicating with the kids. He spoke to them at their level and made them feel comfortable.”

Shattie, who died June 23, on the age of 73 after a decades-long battle with coronary heart illness, emphasised to his gamers what some would possibly take into account old skool attributes corresponding to doing the precise factor, self-discipline and character.

“Joe was all about that stuff,” mentioned Gaudet, who first met Shattie when their youngsters performed youth sports activities collectively within the Nineties. They stayed shut over time.

Sports had been a thread that went via a lot of Shattie’s life.

He was born in Winooski, Vt. When he was simply 3, his father died from an damage he had suffered throughout World War II and his mom moved him and his brother, Sam, to Florida to dwell with their aunt. He later returned to Vermont to complete highschool at Rice and went on to play baseball on the University of Missouri.

His first profession was within the bar and restaurant enterprise in Burlington which led him and a buddy to open Than Wheeler’s in White River Junction, which has since closed. It was there he met his future spouse, who was enjoying in a ladies’s softball league on the time.

“It was my first summer playing and a friend on the team was celebrating her birthday so we went over there,” Cheryl Shattie recalled.

The couple had been married nearly 47 years earlier than Shattie’s dying. Together, they raised three sons, Jason, Kellen and Bryce.

“I would watch them interact together and they had this special bond,” mentioned Todd Bebeau, the Hartford High School boys hockey coach who labored with Shattie on the Quechee Golf Course for a few years. “I had so much respect for the love they shared.”

All three of the Shattie sons performed sports activities and their dad typically coached them.

“He was a firm believer in hard work and having fun,” mentioned Bryce, who lives in East Hampton, Mass. “He thought you could be both competitive and a good sport. It was what we often talked about.”

Growing up in Florida, Shattie by no means realized how one can skate, however when his youngsters took an curiosity in skating and hockey, he determined to study, which isn’t a straightforward job as an grownup.

“It took a lot of courage to learn how to skate and learn the game of hockey,” Bebeau mentioned. “But Joe did it because he wanted to be involved with his kids and the hockey community. Joe did things for all the right reasons. It is the type of father Joe was. If his kids were involved in something, he wanted to be fully engrossed in it.”

Shattie realized how one can coach and referee hockey video games, typically touring lengthy distances after working his day job in Richmond, Vt., the place he was a gross sales supervisor for Caterpillar tools. Shattie joined Caterpillar after promoting Than Wheelers. Despite the lengthy drives every single day to Richmond, Shattie maintained his dedication to his household and his youngsters’s sports activities.

“He would drive 50 miles one way to work, drive 50 miles home and then hop in the car and drive us to where our sporting event was,” recalled his son, Kellen, who lives in White River Junction.

Even after his youngsters had aged out of the recreation and highschool sports activities scene, Shattie didn’t wish to hand over what he cherished doing for the children and his neighborhood.

“I said, ‘Why are we going all over the state of New Hampshire when we don’t even have a kid in any of this?’ ” Cheryl Shattie as soon as requested her husband. “I just know how much he loved doing it.”

Shattie additionally was identified for his easy-going temperament. Stephen DeFelice, Shattie’s neighbor whose son, Brad, performed baseball with Shattie’s son, Bryce, remembers these qualities on show when Shattie was a hockey referee.

Some mother and father, who assume their baby is destined for the NHL, can get a bit of overzealous watching a recreation, DeFelice mentioned.

“It was not uncommon for your neighbor to be hollering at you if you made a bad call,” DeFelice mentioned. “It may not have been a bad call, but they thought it was. And Joe would just have this big grin on his face when people would holler at him.”

In addition to teaching, Shattie served on the Hartford Zoning Board of Adjustment and his work with the Rotary Club earned him the Paul Harris Fellow Award, the service group’s highest award. Shattie additionally served on the Friends of Dartmouth Hockey, serving to to lift cash via occasions such because the annual golf event.

After retiring, Shattie, across the age of 70, took a job working on the driving vary on the Quechee Golf Course and was quickly generally known as the “Mayor of the Driving Range,” Cheryl Shattie mentioned.

Bebeau, the Hartford hockey coach, has fond reminiscences of his time with Shattie on the Quechee Golf Course, listening to his tales about his time on the street with Caterpillar.

“He didn’t need to work, but he just loved being around people,” Bebeau mentioned. “He always had a big smile on his face and was a great storyteller. He was one of the most positive people I have known. People you talk to will tell you they were drawn to Joe because Joe was a quality human being.”

Health issues plagued Shattie starting at age 40 when he suffered a coronary heart assault that required stents. Ten years later, after one other coronary heart assault, Shattie had quadruple bypass surgical procedure and eventually, he had a 3rd coronary heart assault at age 66. Shattie’s many coronary heart issues had been hereditary and he labored exhausting, with an train routine and nutritious meals, to enhance his well being.

“Family was first for him and that was a big motivator,” Cheryl Shattie mentioned.

Shattie, who was an avid birdwatcher who loved their peaceable holidays in Upstate New York, knew he was fortunate to outlive his well being scares and by no means took a day without any consideration, his son Kellen mentioned.

“He really wanted to enjoy the time he had,” Kellen mentioned.

Shattie used his personal expertise to assist his neighbors, the DeFelices, when Dawn DeFelice had open coronary heart surgical procedure on the onset of COVID in 2020.

“Anytime my wife had a question, ‘Is this normal?’ or ‘Should this be happening?’ Joe had an answer,” Stephen DeFelice mentioned. “He knew what she was going through and would call to check on her to be sure she was OK because we were isolated. Joe was a real godsend for us during that time.”

Gaudet started his remarks at a memorial service for Shattie by referring to a video of the Shatties filmed for Dartmouth Health. The couple talked about Shattie’s coronary heart assaults and the care he acquired, hoping it will encourage others to pay nearer consideration to their well being and never let the busy lives they lead forestall them from taking good care of themselves.

Gaudet famous that Shattie started the video by saying, “Life is precious.”

It was a credo Shattie lived every day, Gaudet mentioned on the memorial.

“All of us who knew Joe remember how uplifted we were in any encounter with him,” Gaudet mentioned. “We miss him so much.”

Patrick O’Grady might be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.