Joseph William Lawrence

Joseph William Lawrence, 87 years old, passed away on Sunday, August 23, 2026 at Kaiser Medical Center in San Rafael California. Joe had been a resident of Sonoma, California since the early 1970’s.

Joe Lawrence was born at home on the Lawrence family ranch northeast of Sparks, Nebraska in April of 1939 to Wm. Lloyd and Pearl Retta Allen Lawrence. He spent his childhood there with his siblings and parents and attended a one room country school. He graduated from Keya Paha County High School in Springview, Nebraska in 1957 where he was involved in Band, 4-H and other activities. Joe worked alongside his father and family during blizzards and hot summers on the ranch learning about and loving the outdoors. He suffered a broken collarbone in a frightening tractor accident the Summer after he graduated from high school, the tractor he was driving tipped over.

In December 1957 Joe joined the Navy and attended boot camp in San Diego, CA. In January 1960 he was assigned to the Naval Base at Adak Island in Alaska. In January 1961, he joined the crew of the U.S.S. Thetis Bay in the Pacific as a Hospital Corpsman, a medical specialist who provided healthcare, emergency care and clinical care to sailors, Marines and their families. He was given an honorable discharge as a HM3 in November 1961.

Joe graduated from San Francisco State College in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science degree and later earned Masters Degrees in chemistry and education. After spending some time working at smaller labs and Chevron Joe joined Kaiser Permanente and worked his way up to Lab Manager in San Rafael California from where he retired.

Joe was a farmer at heart and loved to spend time in his grapes and olives and especially his irises. He formed the C&L Vineyards with his partner and husband Rudy Ciuca in the late 70s. They bottled their own Gewurztraminer wine for several years in the 90’s and then sold their grapes to be bottled by Nevada City Winery in the 2000’s. Their farm also had chickens, exotic birds, and several very special cats over the years.

He was very active in the Santa Rosa Iris Society and Rudy and he hosted their gardens as part of the 2019 National Conventional of the American Iris Society with hundreds of people in attendance.

Joe and Rudy supported many causes over the years including the arts. They were season ticket holders and generous donors to both the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet. Joe was also very interested in history and served on the Board of the Jack London Foundation as President. He encouraged many a young writer with the Foundation’s writing competition.

Joe is survived by his siblings; Louise Lawrence Boyd of Stanton, NE, LaRetta Lawrence Edwards, Holdredge, NE, Caroline Lawrence Graham, Rushville, NE, William Lloyd Lawrence and wife Carol Harris Lawrence of Sparks and Bennett, NE. He has 15 Lawrence nieces and nephews with spouses and children who all love him dearly and three surviving Ciuca nieces and families.

Production page at the time of services.Joe was preceded in death by his partner in life of over 62 years and husband since 2014, Rudolf “Rudy” Ciuca who passed on April 6, 2024. Also preceding him in death are his parents, Lloyd and Pearl Lawrence and brother in-laws, Dwayne Boyd, Bill Edwards, Dean Graham and Tony and Johnny Ciuca and niece. Joe will be buried along with Rudy’s ashes at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery, Dixon California at 12:30PM PST on Thursday, September 24, 2026. The service will be streamed on Facebook on Sotia Live

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