Joel Heaton was a junior at the U. S. Naval Academy when he joined the Debate Team. He still remembers the date, November 19, 1965, when the team traveled to the University of Illinois-City Center. Also sending a team to the debate was Ohio University.  At a break, Joel had a casual conversation with a rival debater, Kathy, from Ohio. That conversation led to a long-distance romance. 

 

After graduating with merit from the Naval Academy, Joel was assigned to duty in Hawaii, and he and Kathy made wedding plans. He was then assigned to a ship which deployed to Vietnam. Unfortunately for Joel and Kathy, his tour of duty on the ship was extended and the wedding was postponed. When he returned stateside, he and Kathy remade their wedding plans so they could marry within Joel's two weeks leave. Joel and Kathy recently celebrated their 46^th anniversary. Joel’s naval career spanned 30 years. After three deployments to Vietnam, Joel was posted to the Navy ROTC at the University of Colorado in Boulder. While in Boulder, Joel earned a master’s degree in foreign affairs. 

 

When that rotation was nearing an end, he saw a posting for vacancies in the nuclear power program. He was accepted into the program and the remainder of his Naval career was in nuclear power. After training at Aberdeen, Md. and a stint operating a prototype nuclear reactor, Joel was posted to Norfolk where he worked on the USS Nimitz, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet. Later he commanded the USS Dewey, was chief engineer on the USS Eisenhower and commissioning commanding officer of the Aegis missile cruiser Monterey. He retired as a captain and is a charter member of the Navy Surface Warfare Officers. For the past 16 years, Joel has been a civilian with the Department of Defense.

 

Joel was first exposed to Rotary during high school when the Rotary Club of Englewood, Colo. selected him as a Junior Rotarian of the Month during his senior year. This meant Joel got to join the club for its October lunches. When he moved to Norfolk, his wife Kathy, joined Nancy Chandler & Associates. Upon his retirement from the Navy, Rotarian Nancy Chandler invited Joel to join our club, which he did in 1997. 

 

Joel and Kathy have two sons. The oldest, Paul, is national customer service director for Nissan Motors. The youngest, Todd, is a pediatric oncology surgeon with Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. With the kids grown, the Heatons share their home with Lady Madeline, a Scottish Terrier. Joel and Kathy enjoy going to Virginia Opera and Virginia State Company. On many weekends you will find them enjoying their second home in the Northern Neck.