Joe Dan Coulter

Joe Dan Coulter

Iowa City

Joe Dan Coulter, 80, of Iowa City, IA, passed away September 20, 2024, at the Colonial Manor of Amana. The family would like to thank the staff at Colonial Manor and Essence of Life Hospice for their tender care.

A celebration of life will take place Thursday, November 21 at 5 pm at Wilson’s Ciderhouse, located at the orchard where Joe and his family had enjoyed apple picking and hay rack rides.

Joe was born on July 25, 1944, the son of Joseph Eloi and Vivian Vilda (Jensen) Coulter, in Victoria, TX. The family moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where his mother was a teacher and his father managed the airport owned by the University of Oklahoma. Joe graduated from University High School in Norman, eventually earning his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Oklahoma.

Joe met his first wife Rosa in Oklahoma City, where their sons Gavin and Daniel were born. The family moved to Galveston, TX, where Joe purchased a sailboat, and they all spent time sailing and racing in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Joe completed post-doctoral work in Neurophysiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Universita di Pisa in Italy, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland with his family in tow.

During a stint in the 1980s at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., Joe met his second wife, Virginia. Their daughter, Danielle was born in 1983.

In 1985, Joe was recruited to the University of Iowa, where he would spend the next three decades as anatomy department head, professor and associate provost. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma, Joe established multiple programs to increase access among Native Americans to higher education, especially in scientific fields. He would “retire” in 2018 but continued to serve on boards, panels and committees dedicated to public health, with a focus on Native and Indigenous peoples.

A great lover of the outdoors and the American West, Joe enjoyed backpacking, camping and flyfishing. He learned how to restore bamboo flyrods and spent time fixing and gifting or selling rods to family members and acquaintances. Annually, Joe would embark on the “Back Packing, Fly Fishing, Chicken Fried Steak Tour of the Old West” with his son Gavin, making stops to visit various family members along the way. They made 24 such treks, culminating in their final tour in 2017.

Joe was skilled at playing a number of musical instruments, including the guitar, mandolin, and the banjo. While he appreciated vintage and contemporary music across genres, he most enjoyed listening to and playing bluegrass and folk.

He was also proud of his stone house on a hill in Iowa City, built in 1929 and featured in multiple news articles in local newspapers.

Joe is survived by sons, Gavin and Daniel Coulter; daughter, Danielle (Robert) Merlino; grandchildren Autumn (River) Jarman, Devan and Ashleigh Coulter, Robbie and Russell Merlino; and his siblings, Tim (Samantha) Coulter, Catherine (Bootzin) Coulter, and Jaime (Debra) Coulter.

Joe was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Cindy Coulter.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to AISES for the advancement of indigenous people in STEM, at aises.org.

Online condolences may be shared at www.lensingfuneral.com.