Joseph Eugene Martinez, 56, a resident of Mount Vernon, Washington, passed away 12:39 am on March 31, 2022, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA.  He was born on December 22, 1965, in Santa Cruz, California the son of Clifford and Marie (Rivera) Martinez.

When he was born, his Aunt Ida nicknamed him Geno and that name stuck with him until he went into the military and became known as Joe.

As a child, Geno played on recreational baseball, football, and basketball teams.  He spent a lot of time with his grandparents, cousins, as well as friends and other family.  Geno’s very first friend in life was his cousin, Roz, who was only two months older than him.  Some of his favorite memories were staying with his Grandpa Joe, his grandma’s homemade tortillas, watching WWF (which he thought was cute that his grandma believed it was real), late-night fright shows while eating cereal with grandma, riding bikes with friends with their skateboards on their backs going down to skate, swim, or surf.  Geno knew it was time to go home when the streetlights came on.  He really enjoyed spitting out of the back of the pickup truck with his brothers (wearing no seatbelts) while his dad was driving down the highway.

In his later high school years, he moved to Hawaii with his girlfriend’s family, where he graduated from Radford High School in Honolulu.  He joined the Army straight out of high school.  His Army career took him all over the world to places such as Korea, Egypt, Sinai, Israel, and into Desert Storm.  By the end of his career with the military, he was a Combat Specialist Airborne Sharpshooter with many awards and medals including a bronze star.  He worked in the armory and supplies during his service.  He was so dedicated to protecting his country that he was tempted to reenlist after 9/11.  He valued freedom so much that when Ukraine was invaded, he was ready to volunteer to train Ukrainian people to use weaponry and operate vehicles as those were his specialties.

As a teenager, Joe got his first job in Santa Cruz down at the boardwalk at O’Neil’s surf shop.  After the military, he worked for Sam’s Club in the Seattle area and became the receiving manager.  In 1998, after being with Sam’s for a bit, Joe was encouraged by a Costco manager to apply at the warehouse in Aurora Village and he was hired on as a forklift driver which paid more than the Sam’s club management position.  Joe was also chosen to help open the new Costco Burlington 662 warehouse.  He liked the area and the people so much he wanted to stay in that building where he continued his career of exactly 23 years with the company.  Joe met many people working for Costco; some of them became his very best friends of his lifetime.  A lot of his coworkers referred to him and his buddy, Oly as the Top Gun of forklift drivers.  Not only were they good drivers but they were also inseparable even after work.  Costco is also where he met a man whom he called Pappy, aka Dale, because he let him stay at his place during a rough patch in his life, where he was given time to reflect and reinvent his life.  That is when he met his wife and longtime partner, Donnelle.  Many others from work meant the world to Joe, he often referred to them as his Costco family.  In the last few years at Costco, he decided to step off the forklift and became a cashier where he enjoyed working with some of his favorite coworkers there too.  So many employees at Costco had their first day as Joe’s stockers or cashier assistants and some have moved up in the company as supervisors, department managers, staff level managers, assistant general managers, and even up to the current general manager of the Burlington Costco.  A few of them told him, “I’m going to be a manager one day,” and Joe told them, “You will be, and you better be a good one.”  He had many nicknames at work, Broseph, Heavy D, JoJo, Joey and Sugar Bear just to name a few.  Joe retired in September 2021.

Joe loved football and baseball.  The San Francisco 49ers and the San Francisco Giants were his most favorite teams.  He was very loyal and serious about HIS teams, no matter how much flack he got for it from his friends, coworkers, and the community.  He was so confident the 49ers were going to win the Super Bowl that he vowed to shave his precious beard if they lost… and when they did, he begrudgingly followed through the very next day.  He had quite the collection of hats and jerseys, and always had a hard time deciding which one would be the luckiest on game day- he’d often say “I should have worn the other one” after a defeat.  On game days, Joe kept a victory beer in the fridge and a cigar in the humidor; hoping his team would win… and when they didn’t, it became his consolation beer and he’d save the cigar for their next win.  He was an OG of the Costco 662 fantasy football league- he never won but maybe once, because he couldn’t help but pick mostly 49ers for his team.  Joe loved playing golf with his work buddies and his kids.  He spoke many times of going back out to the Similk Golf Course to see how many of Oly’s golf clubs were still in the bush at the hole where Oly could never make par.  He also enjoyed building, cleaning and repairing guns and teaching people how to shoot them safely; especially women… and was so proud when they hit the target better than him.  He used to say, “I don’t know why, but women shoot better than men.”  Paintball was another thing he had fun doing.  Joe made paracord tactical gear including bracelets, handles, and water bottle covers.  Joe loved to have barbecue and other cook offs with his wife.  He was rather competitive, sometimes jokingly he wouldn’t concede defeat- his food tasted better to him.  He was skilled at smoking cheeses and meats; coworkers would bring him cheese to smoke for them.  He got into gardening and lawn care, however he enjoyed riding the mower the most.  He became the first honorary member of the “Old Fart Mower Racing Team” by putting flame stickers on each side of his mower that said, “Shake and Bake.”  He took up playing the cajon drum, harmonica, and attempted the bass, and guitar… but absolutely mastered the air guitar.  He loved playing Rock Band with his friends and family.  Joe loved music, but if he had to choose just one – Metallica was his favorite band.  During his lifetime, he was able to see many concerts all over the world.  One of his favorite hobbies was painting everything in camo, including flowerpots for his wife, the shed and lawn mower cart; she put the kibosh on his idea to paint the John Deere.  “Going to school,” is what he called watching YouTube videos.  Joe liked mostly action and comedy and military movies, his favorite was John Wick, all of them.  25 was his favorite number.  He also loved saying, “if you’re not first, you’re last,” among many other catchy phrases.  He had a great sense of humor and was fun to laugh with.

Joe was proud of all his children.  He felt very grateful and honored to have the opportunity to help raise Tony and Taylor.  He was heartbroken to not have the chance to do the same with his two eldest boys, Mike and James and always kept them close in his heart.  He adopted his wife’s two adult children, Ashlynn and Eric.  He loved teaching Tony and Taylor, as well as his niece, Carli and nephews, Cameron, Chase, Drew, and Alex how to swim.  The family loved their time at the lake together.  He also taught the kids to ride bikes and play baseball.  He even volunteered to coach his kids’ baseball teams from t-ball through coach pitch.  When the kids would ask him what he wanted to do on Father’s Day, his top choices were always to either play catch in the back yard or go golfing together.

Joe is survived by his wife, Donnelle Dennis; children and stepchildren by age, Ashlynn Dennis Longnecker and son in law, Chris, Robert Joseph ‘Mike’ Palm and daughter in law, Jacquelyn, Eric Dennis, James Martinez, Anthony Edgecombe, Taylor Edgecombe; grandmother, Arlene Coleman; father, Clifford Martinez Sr.; step mother, Bobbie; mother, Marie Martinez; brothers, Clifford Martinez, Jr., Steven Martinez and sister in law, Paula; grandchildren, Griffin and Grayson; many aunts, uncles, sister and brother in-laws, cousins, nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his favorite mother-in-law, JoAnn Edgecombe; brother, David Martinez; cousin, Gabe Martinez; best friend, Oly Oberg; great aunt, Rachel Martinez; aunt, Donna Wolfe; cousin, Michael Rivera; grandfather, Joseph Rivera.

A celebration of Joe’s life will be at 2:00 pm, on Monday, May 30, 2022, at Maple Hall in La Conner, WA.  His final resting place will be Union Cemetery, Sedro-Woolley, WA, in the Veteran’s section.  Share your memories of Joe and sign the online guest register.