Funeral services for Joe will be held at First Baptist Church of Jackson, TN at 1:00 PM on Monday, July 1, 2024. Visitation will precede the service from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM, and burial will follow in Hollywood Cemetery.
Joe, the son of the late Queete Marlow and Edward Raymond Exum, was born on July 14, 1927, in Madison County, TN. He was educated in Madison County and Jackson City schools, graduating from Jackson Senior High School in 1945. He attended Union University and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering. He was a TN registered professional engineer, number 3397.
Following high school graduation and near the end of WW II he volunteered for service in the navy where he became a seaman first class. After being discharged from the navy and while attending Union, he began work at the Jackson Electric Department as a part time draftsman and then as an engineering coop attending UT Knoxville. After graduating from UT as an electrical engineer, he returned to the Electric Department and the Jackson Utility Division (JUD, now JEA), serving in sales, as a design engineer and a project engineer, operating superintendent, chief engineer and electric system manager. During this time, he designed and supervised the construction of the underground system now serving downtown Jackson and the electric system’s first 46,000-volt transmission system. After a two-year absence during the 1960’s when he worked for Consolidated Aluminum at New Johnsonville, he returned to JUD as electric manager before serving as General Manager from 1977 until his retirement in 1990.
Joe’s tenure as JUD Manager was marked by expansion of the system’s physical facilities and making provisions for Jackson’s future. He led JUD staff in the construction of a water treatment plant on Carriage House Drive, eliminating rusty water throughout the system, doubling the pumping capacity of the system and contributing to the improved rating of the system from a class 5 to a class 3. New operating centers for the gas and electric departments were constructed on 45 By-Pass to replace outdated facilities in the downtown area. The historic water department operations center on S. Royal was renovated and expanded. A new College Street administration building was constructed to replace the office building that had been destroyed on that site in a 1974 fire. A new gas delivery point was constructed north of Jackson to serve Florida Steel as a new major industry. A new wastewater treatment facility was constructed on Miller Drive, averting a moratorium on system expansions and new customers. A second delivery point for TVA energy was constructed at Oakfield providing additional reliability for the electric system.
In 2018, Joe’s family challenged him to take the decades of information he had collected on his family’s genealogy and the role of Exums in the community and write a book about them. After Martha Jane’s death in 2019, and with the outbreak of coronavirus, Joe spent two years focusing his attention on the history of the family, which resulted in the 2022 publication of The Exums of Madison County, Tennessee. The book is a compendium of nine generations of Exums who have lived in Madison County since 1831. Joe was proud of the legacy he left for the family with the 95-chapter, 490-page book published by Genealogy House.
Joe was an active member of First Baptist Church where he served in many capacities including Deacon Chairman, Finance Committee Chairman, and Sunday School teacher. In 2015 he was named Deacon Emeritus.
He was active in the business and civic life of Jackson and served on the boards of many utility, civic and business organizations including Volunteer Bank. He served as President of several organizations including the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, Jackson Rotary (Paul Harris Fellow), YMCA, Hollywood Cemetery Association, Humboldt Country Club, and West Tennessee Industrial Association. In 1982 he was named as the Exchange Club’s Jackson’s Man of the Year. In 1987 he was elected as President of the American Public Power Association, the national organization of public utilities.
Joe was preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, the former Martha Jane Jacobs of Humboldt, TN. Surviving Joe are a daughter Evlyn Joyce and grandchildren Brian Joyce of Memphis, TN, Ben Joyce of Collierville, TN, and Jordan Joyce Dyer (Dylan), of Jackson, TN; a son Dr. Joe (Jay) H. Exum, Jr. (Irene) of Longwood, FL, and grandchildren Erin Exum of Nashville, TN, and Riley Exum (Randy Coole) of Altamonte Springs, FL; great granddaughters Hadley and Adeline Dyer of Jackson, TN, and great grandsons Elias Joyce of Collierville, TN, and Hayes Dyer of Jackson, TN. A sister, Alice Towater of Corinth, MS, a brother, Edward Exum and sister-in-law Betty Exum of Clarksdale, MS, and a brother-in-law, Fred W. Jacobs, Jr., and sister-in-law Pat Jacobs of El Cajon, CA, preceded him in death.
Active pallbearers are Ben and Brian Joyce, Jordan Dyer, Erin and Riley Exum, Dylan Dyer and Randy Coole. Honorary pallbearers are John and Steve Beesley, Ed Exum, Fred Jacobs III, the deacons of First Baptist Church, members of the Jackson Rotary Club, and members of the Coffee Club.
The family requests that memorials be made to First Baptist Church, 1627 N. Highland, Jackson 38301.
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