SPECIAL REPORT - Joe Enrietti

(Today we start on a special series featuring a short biographical sketch of each member of the CLK Rotary. We will do these weekly in the order that they joined the club. Our first is Joe Enrietti, a 34-year club member.)


Joe Enrietti was born in Mohawk on June 9, 1925. During his senior year at Calumet High School, he enlisted in the Army Air Force (today called the United States Air Force) as a cadet. After graduation in January, 1944, he joined the AAF and became a tail gunner on a B24 Heavy Bomber with the 8th AAF which was stationed in England. After the war ended in Europe, he left for the U.S.A. on his birthday in 1945 and was given 30 days rest & recuperation before training on B-29 bombers which had a much longer range than the B-24s. He was slated to join the allied forces in the Pacific but before he left, the war ended and soon he was discharged.

Joe married Lenore Hagman who, after 42 years of married bliss, passed away 17 yrs. Ago. Born in Gay, she and her 3 sisters were known as the “Gay girls.” To Joe, Lenore was irreplaceable, so he never remarried. They had one daughter, Pat, MGH Ed. Dept., who with her husband John Limack raised Joe’s three grandchildren. He also has 2 Great grandchildren.

Joe’s worked for 20 years with C&H in their Security Department along with Jack Foster, Clarence Dwyer, and 25 others. It was in reality the UP’s largest police force and covered Keweenaw, Calumet and Lake Linden 24/7. They were even trained by the FBI occasionally. After C&H closed, Joe became a salesman for W. Gately’s Furniture but a huge fire took them out after 3 years so Joe, after spurning offers from the Vertins to join them, worked for Wylie Loan Company managing their furniture store in Calumet. He stayed with them for about 20 years and ended up purchasing the store and operating it successfully.

At the ripe age of 70, Joe felt it was the right time to sell and he did. Not satisfied being idle, however, he joined the Erickson Crowley Funeral Home with their new owner, Joel Keranen. He remains there to this day assisting when needed.

Last year, Joe purchased the Catholic Priest’s home in Mohawk and has been adapting it for himself. As Joe says, “Full circle back to Mohawk at 82 going for 83,” adding that “I was damn near done for last month when a bout of Endocardis put me in the Portage Hospital for five days of extensive therapy with antibiotics.” Joe concluded with the thought, “Boy have those 82 years (and 34 years with Rotary) flown by.” Joe joined CLK Rotary on April 1, 1973 and was made a Paul Harris Fellow in 2006.