Gene Joyce leaves legacy The death of Oak Ridge civic leader and community activist Eugene L. Joyce will leave a hole in the fabric of Anderson County and Oak Ridge.A longtime city leader and one of Oak Ridge's earliest citizens, Joyce died late Thursday afternoon. He was 85.He was taken to the hospital on Wednesday after contracting a virus over the weekend. He was admitted to the hospital but his condition continued to deteriorate.Through the years, Joyce has been described as a businessman, lobbyist, banker and a leader among leaders. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors throughout his years in Oak Ridge and has held offices and/or memberships in many organizations. He was also active in city, county, state and federal government. The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce created the Eugene L. Joyce Distinguished Service Award in 1998 honoring his achievements. The annual award recognizes an individual who performs outstanding service to Oak Ridge.Joyce was a founder of Technology 2020, where the state of the art video conference Eugene L. Joyce board room honors his work on the project.The city of Oak Ridge celebrated "Eugene L. Joyce Day" at last year's MayFest celebration.In his retirement years, he remained active and vocal within city, county and state government. He expressed his strong views in the column, "Bar None," that he wrote occasionally for The Oak Ridger. As recently as last month he wrote again urging the city to make a more concerted effort to assure continuance of and sizable increases in the payments in lieu of taxes by the Department of Energy. Persistently he would contrast the much larger amounts paid by the DOE to other localities which DOE's operations had impacted.Born Dec. 12, 1917, in Kingston, N.Y., he was the son of James and Pauline Joyce.He earned degrees from the University of Alabama, City College of New York, Peabody College and earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee in 1951.He served from 1942 to 1944 in the U.S. Air Force and the Army Signal Corps. He then worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority.Joyce and the late U.S. District Judge Frank W. Wilson started their law practice in Jackson Square in 1948.He was always close to and influential in Oak Ridge city government and served as city judge, on one of the earlier charter commissions and as a member of the mayor's advisory board on human relations.Prior to establishing his Oak Ridge law practice with Wilson, he was employed by Tennessee Eastman, then the contractor for the Y-12 plant, as a personnel manager.Joyce and his wife, Vivian, celebrated 25 years of marriage on a cruise in March.According to the family Joyce had often said, "Vivian is the light of my life."His family said his goal in life was to help and please others. He also truly loved his grandchildren whom affectionately called him "Paw Paw," after the Paw Paw Trail in Fall Creek Falls.In addition to his wife, Joyce is survived by his children, Lisa Irish Joyce of Nashville, Lori Joyce Lynn of Marlow community, Steve Normand of Kingston, and Dan Normand and Jim Normand and his wife, Mary, all of Oak Ridge; and his grandchildren, Michael Joseph, Brian Lynn, Dana Lynn, James Normand, Jake Normand, Stephanie Crudup-Normand and Elliott Normand.He is also survived by his sister, Rosalind Liberti and her husband, Jerry, of New York; and a niece and her husband, Rose Marie and Gary Leone of Florida.Joyce was previously married to Mary Margaret Joyce.A memorial service will be announced at a later date. Weatherford Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. =================================================== SUPPORT OUR TROOPS----FLY THE FLAG "I may disagree with what you have to say , but I shall defend , to the death, your right to say it." -Voltaire ===================================================