Joseph M. "Big Joe" Prosser passed away in Flagstaff, Arizona, on April 13, 2024, just one week shy of his 87th birthday. Joe was born on April 20, 1937, on the family farm near Lexington, Ohio, to Harley W. "Spoke" and Mary Eva (Wittmer) Prosser. Joe graduated from Lexington High School in 1955 and attended The Ohio State University for two years before transferring to Colorado State University, where he earned a degree in Forestry.

As a boy, Joe fell in love with the West while on a family trip to California and told his mother that one day he would live there. Indeed, once he moved to Colorado for college, Joe never lived in Ohio again. Joe joined the U.S. Forest Service after graduation and worked as a ranger, a fire fighter, and a timber management specialist until his early retirement in 1986. His career took him to Wyoming, Colorado, California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

During the 1960s, Joe became interested in riding and racing motorcycles. While stationed in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, he identified and created new trails that were used to lay out the course for the first Timberline Enduro, a 100-mile time trial race in the Routt National Forest. Big Joe returned to Steamboat in 1974 to compete in the renowned race and ended up winning first overall.  As his children and later his grandchildren got old enough, Joe taught them how to ride and race and devoted untold weekends to driving them to races and repairing/rebuilding their motorcycles and quads. It was no surprise, then, that Joe started a second career by opening Big Joe's Cycles in Flagstaff, which he ran for nearly 20 years. Even after he sold that business, Joe continued to work on motorcycles for other businesses as well as in his garage well into his 80s. Big Joe was responsible for helping scores of motorcycle and quad enthusiasts get their start in off-road racing.

Joe is survived by three children: son Patrick Prosser and daughters Teresa (Emanuel) Lewis and Lynn Prosser; two stepdaughters: Sheryl Ryan and Joanne Pelletier; 10 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; sister Bonnie (Bob) Richter; and four nieces. He was preceded in death by his parents, sister Rae Natalie Prosser Goodall, and his third wife, Judith (Binkley) Prosser, whom he married in 1977.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a future date.