Vean Joseph Gregg Jr. (aka “Big Joe”, “Bigga” or “Joe”) passed on August 23rd, 2020. He will be remembered for his adventuresome spirit, unique charisma, fierce independence and many friends. He was born in Dallas Texas and lived there with his parents and older sister until he graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1959. He went on to attend the ‘A. and M. College of Texas’ and was forever an Aggie at heart (starting back even before the campus went coed). Initially, he followed his lifelong love of animals into pre-vet studies but his grades didn’t agree with the program so he switched to architecture. Finding it boring, he decided to take an academic hiatus and enlisted in the Navy. He served four years aboard the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier where he was on regular patrol duty looking for submarines as a sonar man and his ship once picked up Gus Grissom returning from space. Along the way, he visited ports in San Diego, Miami, Europe and around the world. After his service in the Navy, he returned to Texas A&M, which by this time was less military, had a better name and had girls on campus. Around this time he met and married Carlene Chappell and they had his only child, Vean III, in 1967. They spent three years in Bryan, TX, where he worked for a regional airline and as an economics teaching assistant until he graduated from TAMU in 1970 with a bachelors of business administration. After graduating, the family moved to Arlington where he began working. Big Joe was the quintessential salesman and made a career of it. First, he was a “traveling salesman” who was on the road throughout the South selling textiles out of his car in the ‘70s. Eventually he found his way into word-processing equipment where he found big-company career success and made many lifelong friends while working at Lanier in Dallas and NYC in the ‘80s. After that, he worked for Uniden in Dallas (’90s) selling electronic equipment and was eventually transferred to Beijing (’95) where he made many Chinese friends and had a rewarding cultural experience. Towards the end of his official career (1996), he got his real estate license and sold lots at the White Bluff Resort community in Whitney, TX, where he went on to live until 2017. During his time in Whitney, he also had post-retirement jobs working at Bledsoe Dodge, Whitney State Park and Brookshire (more friends). Until the end, he had a homemade clock in his house that said “IT IS TIME TO GO SELL A DREAM!” Along the way, he also always “made his quota” when it came to FUN. He loved to travel and had a deep fascination for the Caribbean and Mexico; taking many trips around the world exploring his interests in everything from pirates to Mayan ruins. Alone or with friends, when life handed Big Joe some time off, he promptly packed his flowery shirts and wide-brimmed hats and headed for the tropics. Sometimes spending several weeks per year in Jamaica, Playa Del Carmen, Cancun, Montserrat, Roatan, Antigua, Barbados (and the list goes on). Over his lifetime, he had many recreational interests that included racing Hobie 16 sailboats, camping, golfing, fishing, spectating sports, gardening, wood-working, spending money and raising pets. And, of course, wherever he was, he always had lots of friends and spent a good amount of his time socializing and “shooting the bull” over beverages. His pets included many cats, dogs and even a cockatoo named Bird Bird that rode around on his shoulder. He spent his last few years living in Laguna Vista near Port Isabel and South Padre Island. He finally found his time and place where he could be in the tropics having fun all day, every day - AND HE DID! Surrounded by supportive loving neighbors and cats, he spent recent months learning to paint, investing in local art, and turning his small yard into a tropical botanical garden! (eventually looking like Jurassic Park and leading to a standoff with the HOA.) He is preceded in death by his parents, Vean J. Gregg and Winifred Dunklin McCain Gregg. He is survived by his son, Vean J. Gregg III, his sister, Anne Denison, brother in-law, Jim Denison; grandchildren Carly and Josephine, daughter-in-law Jessica Gregg, niece and nephew Carrie and Mark Denison. In lieu of flowers, please consider making donations to the South Padre Island Friends of Animals Rescue (www.spifriendsofanimalsrescue.com). Joe was an avid supporter. You may sign the online guestbook, light a remembrance candle, or send words of comfort to the family of Vean Joseph Gregg Jr. at www.thomaegarza.com. Funeral arrangements entrusted to the care of Thomae-Garza Funeral Home and Crematory, 395 S. Sam Houston, San Benito, Texas, (956) 399-1331.