Dr. Joseph Langley

Dr. Joseph N. Langley

1936-2023

Dr. Joseph N. Langley was born in Henderson, Kentucky. He was the third of six children of John and Catherine Langley. The family moved to Denver, Colorado, when he was 7 years old. He grew up in Denver and attended Denver Public Schools from elementary to high school, graduating from Manual High School in 1955.

He attended the University of Colorado for two years prior to entering the U.S. Army. There he served as a Morse code interceptor in the Army Security Agency. He tracked Russian troop movement for two years in Germany. He also monitored the first Russian rocket to the moon. After leaving the U.S. Army, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service. He became an instructor for postal collectors. While traveling to Boulder daily taking classes at CU to finish his degree, he continued to work at the U.S. Postal Service.

After he received his BS Degree from the University of Colorado in 1967, he began a successful teaching and administrative career in Denver Public Schools. He started teaching math at Cole Junior High School. While there, Joseph met the love of his life, Alice Powell from Beaumont, Texas, in 1969. They were blessed with two wonderful and outstanding children, Dr. Kimberlyn Jo Langley Brown, a board-certified internist with Ascension Health in Tennessee, and Attorney Koby Joe Langley, senior vice president at the American Red Cross.

As his life with his wife began to flourish in the 1970s, he continued to focus on his love for education, even taking the time to teach math to some of his students’ parents during evening classes while working on his own master’s degree. His diversified teaching background proved to be invaluable when he helped write grants for federal projects for Denver Public Schools. He wrote and received the federal grant for the High School Hold Youth Program, of which he became the program manager and then supervised teachers in every Denver high school in the implementation of the program.

One of Joseph’s greatest accomplishments was the receipt of his doctorate degree in 1981 from the University of Northern Colorado. Dr. Langley then went on to publish his doctoral thesis as a book entitled Handbook for a High School Hold Youth Program. He was promoted to assistant principal at Place Middle School. He served as vice principal and athletic director at Montbello High School and assistant principal at Columbine Elementary School, and soon thereafter, he was promoted to principal at Gilpin Elementary School.

After retiring from Denver Public Schools in 1992, Joseph went back to Colorado University to study real estate appraising and became a realtor. He received his state certification and worked as an associate appraiser for the Certified Real Estate Appraisers. After working as an apprentice for two years, he started his own business, JNL Colorado Residential Appraisers, Inc. His business became very lucrative, and as the CEO, he employed and supervised six associates. The Denver Public Schools Credit Union (now Westerra) and Wells Fargo were some of his main clients for 12 years.

He received many awards and commendations for his leadership in education as well as community service. He devoted countless hours of volunteering in education as a mentor to Manual High School students in 2006–07. He was the vice president of the board of the Denver Education Senior Citizens Inc., which oversaw more than 100 senior tenants in a 12-story high-rise apartment building in Denver. He assisted the elderly in church transportation at New Hope Baptist Church for 10 years and worked with Denver’s African American Health Program. He was the founder and board president of the Langley Family Scholarship Foundation, which gives scholarships to high school seniors each year. Every year since 2011, the foundation has given tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to a multitude of deserving high school seniors and honored them and their families with a special awards program attended by prominent community and government leaders. In addition to his charitable and volunteer work with youth, Joseph worked with the Colorado secretary of state as an agent for voter registration. He completed voter registration drive certifications for Denver agencies and county election officials.

Joseph was a true pillar of the community in Denver, serving as a lifetime member of the Urban League and treasurer of the Urban League Guild of Metropolitan Denver for 20 years. He served as a volunteer at national Urban League conferences in Washington, D.C., Los Angles, and New Orleans. He received the Urban League’s Sebastian Owens Award for Community Service. He was also a lifetime member of the Denver Educational Senior Citizens retirement group. Joseph served as vice president on the board of Denver Educational Senior Citizens, Inc. (DESCI) and as a member of the Colorado Black Chambers of Commerce, Rocky Mountain Minority Suppliers, Voter Registration Agent, Colorado Minority Business, Northeast Denver Optimist Club, American Legion, Masons, 100 Black Men, Phi Delta Kappa, Denver Board of Realtors, National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers and African American Wealth Program.

Joseph was also a devoted man of God and lived his Christian values. He was baptized at age 8 at New Hope Baptist Church of Denver under the pastorate of the late Alvin C. Dones. He was proud to be a part of the Langley family legacy of servitude to Jesus Christ at New Hope Baptist Church, a legacy that currently spans 77 years in the congregation. His favorite bible verse was Psalms 91, which conveys the themes of God’s protection and rescue from danger to his devoted followers.

Joseph Langley was a great family man, an avid fisherman and a hard worker and always gave his time and talents to his family and community. He always shared a joke, a warm smile, and a good laugh with the people he met. His sense of humor was well-known, as was his love of Denver sports teams, nature, gardening, cooking, and his fierce devotion to his extended family members. Joseph Langley leaves to cherish and celebrate his life of 85 years to his beloved wife Alice Powell Langley; daughter Dr. Kimberlyn Jo Brown (Kevin) of Nashville, Tennessee; son Koby Joe Langley (Dr.Adina) of Bowie, Maryland; outstanding grandchildren Brandon Eli Joseph Brown and Kallista Raine Langley; sisters Elaine Anderson and Wanda Lydia (Johnny); brother Jerry Langley of Virginia; sisters-in-law Mary E. Langley and Anna Langley of Denver, Colorado; nephews, nieces, cousins and a host of relatives and many friends. Joseph Langley is reunited with his brothers John and Earl in their heavenly home, along with their parents Catherine and John Ingram Langley.