Joel Barveen Coughlan

Joel was born in and lived the majority of his life in the Idaho Falls, Idaho area. This beloved father, grandfather, and great grandfather passed from this life earlier this month on October 7, 2024, while living on the other side of the planet. His parents were Joseph (Joe) Coughlan and Eva Coughlan. It was his parents love for spending time in the outdoors that was passed through Joel to his children Kevin, Kenny, and Shellie.

During the early years of raising his family, much time was spent with the extended family enjoying the Island Park area and all the recreational adventures it could offer. During the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s, Joel fostered his love for music by keeping the beat for his popular cover band who played various weekend gigs around the Snake River Region. As his roadies, Kevin and Kenny both logged time behind the drums learning the beats of Credence, the Eagles, and other great bands while Shellie Joe was the truly cherished and adored apple of his eye.

Joel enjoyed his career in design and project engineering with many years designing and deploying various remote manipulator systems in nuclear facilities at Argonne National Laboratory -West and around the world. The latter part of his career was spent in a partnership with a former colleague growing a small but successful company specializing in creating innovative remote access and robotic systems used in the global nuclear and defense industries. Even Hollywood benefited from Joel’s design skills as one of his prototype robots was used in a small role in the ‘80s version of the popular movie “Dune”.

Joel spent many years of his later life standing in a surf or onboard his boat fishing off the shores of Florida, Texas, and Mexico. He then met and married his lovely wife Elizabeth and they began their many years of adventure together by splitting their time with summers in Idaho and warm winters in the Philippines. Summer adventures for the couple were spent fishing and prospecting the regional hot spots for gems. Those warm winters in the Philippines included plenty swimming, snorkeling, and leisure time soaking in the many various hot springs in that part of the planet. Their spring time returns to Idaho were a time of excitement for Joel’s 7 grandchildren as they were always gifted the beautiful jewelry and accessories hand crafted by Elizabeth from the summer treasures discovered by the couple the previous summer.

Joel’s love for outdoor adventures and music lives on in his children, grandchildren, and is sure to be passed to his 11 great grandchildren.

Joel’s children will be planning and holding a celebration of Joel’s life to be held sometime in the coming months.