In Memoriam — Joseph A. Petry — Dec. 10, 1962 – Oct. 4, 2025
We are saddened to report the passing of Joseph A. Petry on October 4, 2025 at his residence in Philadelphia, PA. He was just 62 years of age. Unfortunately there was little else posted about the cause of his death or about his life.
We can tell you that Joseph attended a number of Rendezvous and Carlisle Citroën meets. At Carlisle in 2003, Joseph won Best of Show with his Red 1980 H-Van “Sapeurs Pompiers”. He graced the cover of the Citroënthusiast 2003 – Vol. 2 magazine with it:
It was imported just before Carlisle 2003 from St. Remy-sur-Orne, France. Joseph, Roland Sotello, Philippe Des Jardins, and Ian Mellanby went to France to buy some Citroëns to import. Soon after loading the newly purchased Citroëns on the ship in La Havre, they saw an advertisement for the H-Van, located about an hour away. They traveled to see it and Joe really liked it. The only problem was they were returning the next day to the States. Joseph bought it anyway. Although there was a tremendous amount of hassle and red tape, they arranged for the H-Van to be towed to the same shipping company and orchestrated some of the paperwork back in the States. Eventually, everything fell into place and the H-van began turning heads in Philadelphia.
Joseph and his friends used the H-Van as a camper at Carlisle. It was thought at the time that Joseph might end up selling crepes out of the H-Van at Carlisle the following year as he was thinking of making a career change
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Joseph, please visit the Philadelphia Cremation Society’s flower store.
A memorial for Joe will be held at the Philadelphia Brewing Company at 2440 Frankford Ave, Phila, PA on Sunday, December 14th, at 1 p.m. Bring your best Joe story, recipe, memory!
Very sad news. Joe helped make the 2016 Rendezvous even more special than usual. He graciously offered the newly formed Rendezvous Chauffeurs to show off and offer rides in his steam powered boat. He was returning from a boating event using his H-van as the tow vehicle.
It was a tremendous hit! He spent several hours buzzing, or more appropriately steaming, folks around Saratoga Lake.
I will always Joe’s kindness & generosity from that weekend.
Condolences to all his friends & family.
I met Joe Petry some 40 years ago, in the late-1980s. He had just graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Electrical Engineering – which was quite an accomplishment. However, the economy was pretty rough and thus Joe was looking for work. I got him a job where I was employed – at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, IFAS Editorial Department. There we worked on a professor’s groundbreaking and oh-so-new on-line education/information efforts. It wasn’t too long thereafter that Joe got a Job with Motorola up in Philly.
While in Gainesville he very involved in the local music scene, which was thriving with many different bands. It was largely centered around the Hardback Cafe in the heart of the downtown entertainment district. I remember that a couple of his favorite bands were the Carpet Farmers and Run Unidentified. He briefly performed vocals for one of these bands, and I saw him perform one evening at the Covered Dish, another of Gainesville’s popular music venues.
After moving to Philly we stayed in touch, and he became a regular summer visitor to my cottage on the coast of Massachusetts. He’d always show up with a cooler filled with delicacies from Philly – cheese, olives, and whatnot which were superb. One year he brought along one of his buddies to go fishing – who turned out to be Ian Mellanby – and I made a great new friend.
Joe was always up for an adventure. While in Gainesville we went on a number of excursions in my boat. One took us up the Suwannee River to visit all of the springs north of the little town of Branford. Another found us motoring down Salt Springs Run in the Ocala National Forest out to Lake George and the wide St. Johns River. I followed with interest as he travelled more than once to Taiwan on work-related business. And then, of course, were his two epic adventures in New Zealand, at least one of which was conducted on a motorcycle.
From an amazing Motorola cell phone that took videos, to his Toyota Prius, not to mention his interest in the current music scene, Joe seemed to be an early adopter of innovation, if not all things simply cool. This surely would include the folding bicycle he showed up with one summer in New England, which garnered attention from practically everyone who saw him ride by. And of course, there was the Citroen DS, which he appropriately called the “Flying Saucer.” I distinctly remember my first ride in the Saucer, where, with highly amusing fanfare, Joe adjusted the height of the car’s pneumatic suspension, followed by several other steps including tooting the air horn before motoring off down River Road. (Along this line of thinking, the Citroen fire truck and the steam-powered boat must be mentioned.)
I last saw Joe at Ian’s celebration. He seemed as per usual – the Joe one could reliably expect… kind of a paragon of stability in my mind. Surely I speak for many when I say I feel a tremendous loss… But memories of all the great times with this unique, and gentle-natured friend will be with me forever.