Joseph F. Obuchowski, 79, of Shelburne, Vt., passed away at home on November 5, 2026. Jое was born on August 23, 1947, and grew up in Bellows Falls, Vt. After graduating as valedictorian of his high school class, he attended Cornell University, graduating in 1969 with a degree in government. He then pursued a law degree at Columbia University Law School, receiving his JD in 1972. While at Columbia, he took up rugby, joining the business and law schools’ rugby team. He loved playing, and, along with his team, he traveled to London, England, and Cardiff, Wales, to play.
After law school, he worked for the City of New York as assistant corporation counsel. He then returned to Vermont, where, in order to be admitted to the Vermont Bar, he had to clerk for an attorney; that attorney was Jim Jeffords. His first job in Vermont was the director of legal services for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, where he specialized in municipal law. He then became, in succession, an associate at the law firm of Ewing and Spokes; a partner of Carroll, Sussman and Obuchowski; and of counsel to Roesler, Whittlesey, Meekins and Amidon. After his wife, Carole, passed the bar, he created the firm Joseph F. Obuchowski & Associates, and they practiced law together, focusing on land-use litigation, estate planning, and residential and commercial real estate.
His knowledge of the law was encyclopedic, and other lawyers would seek out his advice and thoughts about legal issues. He was incredibly good at examining witnesses in court and in depositions. For many years, he taught business law at Champlain College. At Vermont Law School, he was a moot court judge, something he particularly loved doing — he carefully read the students’ briefs (and corrected the students’ grammar). For six years, through the Vermont Judiciary Professional Responsibility Board, he was a member of the hearing panel that investigated claims of attorney misconduct. Recently, another member of the panel said he had the uncanny ability to know what was right and what was wrong.
His favorite law book was the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure. His favorite motion before the court wasn’t, in fact, an actual motion, but something he made up — what he termed “the Omnibus Motion,” in which he’d present all the possible alternatives that would support his argument. When in court, he often would be funny as he made his arguments — which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t — but in all his endeavors, he let his sense of humor take center stage. He was always making people laugh. He had an academic bent, and he could be witty and inventive — an absurd and yet incisive thinker. He knew just the right word for everything.
Joe was community minded. He joined the Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary Club in the early 1980s and served as the club’s president from 1995 to 1996. Subsequently, he was a member of the Sunrise Burlington Rotary Club and the Burlington Rotary Club, becoming, through the organization, a Paul Harris Fellow. In the 1990s, he was on the Champlain Valley Union School Board. For many years, through the Zonta Club, an organization devoted to improving the lives of women and girls, he participated in a spelling bee at Champlain College with fellow attorneys James Wick and Sarah Pinto. He volunteered to cook at Hope Lodge and worked with Steve Gentile to fundraise for Partners in Adventure, which provides programs that partner disabled teens with nondisabled peers. He pursued all these endeavors because he was generous and kind.
Joe was loved by his family. He is survived by Carole Obuchowski, his wife of over 56 years; his daughter Janice Obuchowski, of Middlebury, Vt.; and his daughter Laura Miller and her husband, Jamie Miller, and their children, Presley and Hubbard Miller, of Shelburne, Vt.
There will be a celebration of life on Monday, December 7, 2026, 11 a.m., at the Channing House in Shelburne, Vt. In lieu of flowers, for those who wish to donate in Joe’s honor, we ask that you consider the Burlington Rotary Club or a charity of your choice.