A Vietnam veteran, Joe Cyr retired from a thirty-year Navy career in 1979 as Assistant Professor of Operations Research at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.
A nonagenarian (93) and long-time resident of Sarasota, Joe shares his time between tutoring high-school students and creative efforts as poet, author, lyricist, and amateur playwright.
PLAYWRIGHT: Joe’s full-length play NHÀ is based on his experiences in 1970 Saigon, Vietnam; his work includes many short plays, comedy sketches and skits read and work-shopped by the Sarasota Area Playwrights Society. During the Covid crisis, Florida Studio Theatre presented a “one-on-one” project video of Joe’s ten-minute monologue The Object, that includes a mime segment.
POET & AUTHOR: Most of Joe’s many poetry books and children’s books are available from Amazon. His short story Ugga won a “Chairman’s selection” award and was read professionally to the public at Selby Public Library in Sarasota, Florida. His inspirational poem We Are the Sea was cited a recommended reading at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Other inspirational poems include Eye of the Storm and Full and By. Joe earned the 2013 Florida Senior Poet Laureate Award for his four-haiku poem Forest Seasons.
LYRICIST & LIBRETTIST: Joe is librettist for several hymns (e.g., “The Humble Church at Tatum Ridge;” “Take a Number;” “My Soul is Higher Soarin’”) and the Christmas musicals Book by the Crèche, Étoile, and Out in the Snow, as well as the full-length musicals OLIVE! and TREES! His many songs include “Common Sense Blues,” “Keep Smilin’ Polka” and a rap song, “Responsibility.” Many of these and other songs are in the CD album Jewett City Polka and 11 Other Great Original Songs, a collaboration with local Sarasota entertainers. The Plainfield (Connecticut) High School and Plainfield Historical Society collaborated on a project to produce a youtube video for Joe’s “Plainfield Polka.” The videos of both polkas can be downloaded from the Internet.
Joe has six children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; he and his wife, the former Marion June, reside in Sarasota, Florida.
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Visit www.joe-cyr.com .