Joseph E. McCardell, a retired U.S. Customs senior inspector and Army veteran, died July 25 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Tullamore, his Timonium condominium. He was 77.
The son of Walter M. McCardell Sr., a former department manager for Sears Roebuck & Co., and Amelia A. Myers, a homemaker, Joseph Eugene McCardell was born in Baltimore and raised in Govans and on North Calvert Street in Charles Village.
A Calvert Hall College High School graduate, Mr. McCardell served in Army Intelligence as a specialist from 1961 to 1967 at Fort Holabird and Fort McNair in Washington. He attained the rank of sergeant.
Mr. McCardell joined the U.S. Customs Service in 1969 as an inspector in and was assigned to its Baltimore district.
In 1973, he and Mary Frances Marsh married.
He worked at the port of Baltimore, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and at the Annapolis Anchorage, where he rode out in the pilot boat and boarded ships that were bound for the port.
Mr. McCardell worked all hours of the day and night and in all kinds of weather.
"We have about three or four standard questions that we ask — on residency and citizenship, whether they have any foodstuffs or agricultural products, whether they have any gifts or liquor or cigarettes," Mr. McCardell said in a 1980 Baltimore Sun article about his work at the airport interviewing international passengers.
Colleagues recalled Mr. McCardell's unflappability no matter the situation, and the sense of humor he brought to his work.
He retired in 1995.
Mr. McCardell was a resident of Kenilworth Apartments in Towson before he and his wife purchased a townhouse in Mays Chapel when the development opened in 1977.
Mrs. McCardell died in 2013.
Mr. McCardell was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Hibernians, and for years marched in the city's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. He was an avid reader and enjoyed books about espionage and mysteries, family members said.
"He was also very close to all of his nieces and nephews," said a nephew, Paul M. McCardell, a Baltimore Sun researcher who lives in Columbia.
Mr. McCardell was a parishioner of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Cockeysville.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Mary of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church, 5502 York Road, Govans.
He is survived by his brother, Walter M. McCardell Jr. of Stoneleigh, a retired Baltimore Sun photographer; three sisters, Elizabeth A. McCardell of Timonium, Eunice B. Hupfer of Silver Spring and Mary I. Robinson of Wells, Maine: and many nieces and nephews.
— Frederick N. Rasmussen