Gary J. Botkin

Gary Joseph Botkin (Joe) was born near 4100 East Washington Street. When Joe was 11 years old his family moved to 7000 West 38^th Street where his Dad bought 29 acres of farmland and a large white farmhouse. This became the family home with 3 brothers(Rolan, Ted, and David) and 1 sister(Barb) where they lived. Joe graduated from Ben Davis High School, joined the Coast Guard, and was honorably discharged within a year. Joe then attended 2 years at Butler University, then joined his father’s business, National Decorators Supply, Inc. in the 300 block of North Illinois Street. Joe was in charge of the Store Decorating half of the business, where he procured and sold store window treatments and sold to Blocks’ and Ayres’ Department Stores and others at the time. He also enjoyed designing and supplying Store Fixtures to many clothing stores in the five-state region. In 1969, Joe opened his own business, Design Industries, Inc. and joined by his three sons, grew the business to a $16 million a year company.

Joe married Charlotte Thompson in 1979, and with the addition of her 2 daughters now had 5 grown children.

Joe’s interest was mostly his business and family. He always kept very busy working on craft projects mostly related to the business which he also made sure that he was directly involved in Christmas Decorations for companies such as Eli Lilly, Indiana Bell, AUL and many others and was appointed the Chairman of the Indianapolis Circle back in the 1970’s. Joe was a Shiner and also of the Scottish Rite.

Joe’s hobbies was mostly fishing. When he was a child, his family would go to Wisconsin 1 to 2 times per year and fish with Mom(Penelope) and Dad(Zedrick). After Joe was married, he continued to go to some “fisherman dream” locations in Canada, Hudson Bay among others, many times flown into the “bush” by plane and dropped of for 1 to 2 weeks. Joe continued this tradition with son-in-laws, and sons and families for over fifteen years until Joe’s health diminished. The last year that he went to Wisconsin was in 2018 and he still dreamed of going again even though we could not get him in a boat. He still fished off the shore.

There is no way to tell Joe’s story the way that he lived life. There is very many chapters and we were blessed to have 91 years with him. He was always very active, knew exactly what he liked and disliked. He was a very colorful individual and friendly to others and had a lot of “friends”.

He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers Rolan and Ted and his beloved grandson Beau.

Joe is survived by: wife Charlotte, brother David(wife Loretta), sister Barbara, children, Becky(husband Steve),  Mark(wife Kathy), Monte(wife Peggy), Beth(husband Dennis), and Kirk(wife Julie), grandchildren Chad, Lara, Casey, Chelsea, Drew, Alex, Haileigh, John, Brittany, Bradley, and Melissa, and 18 great grandchildren