Joe lived in the area of Chicago, Ill. He studied in Rome and became a Catholic priest, acquiring doctorate degrees in philosophy and theology. His father was upset when the Franciscan Third Order Regular planned to assign the name “Malachy” for the ordination, and so he instead became Father Joe. Thus, the Sharbaugh family had two brothers named Joe. Fr. Joe served at St. Francis College, Loretto, Pa., and at Steubenviile, Oh. He joined the Air Force in the 1960s and became a Chaplain at various bases, including Selma, Ala., Roswell, NM, Homestead, Fla., Guam and Okinawa. During the Vietnam War he was stationed at Da Nang. He became an Air Force Colonel and settled for a time at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

It was at that base, about 20 years into his ministry, that he assembled the Sharbaugh family and announced that he was leaving the priesthood to marry a woman for whom he was counseling for divorce. Two of his sisters feinted and the ensuing uproar caused a rift in the family. A family reconcilation at the funeral of mother Mary in 1946 was a partial success, as Joe did a reading at the funeral Mass, but some members declined to attend the post-funeral gathering, maintaining the protest.