Born in Chester, S.C., Joseph Means McFadden was the son of Ethel Means and Samuel Edward McFadden.
He grew up in Chester and attended Davidson College where he received an A.B. Degree. He received his law degree from the University of South Carolina Law School and received further legal education at Yale University. He taught law at the law schools of the University of South Carolina and later at the University of Georgia.
He returned to his native Chester where he practiced law for twenty years. He practiced law in Columbia with the late David W. Robinson until he retired in 1980. He served for many years as a South Carolina Bar Examiner.
He was deacon, elder and Sunday School teacher in the Purity Presbyterian Church in Chester as well as in the Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Columbia.
He served in the European Theater in World War II as an Air Force Intelligence Officer, rising to the rank of Major.
Married to the late Francis Graham, he is survived by daughter Frances McFadden Cone, granddaughter Deborah Cone Craytor, Esquire, and brothers Samuel Edward McFadden and John Culp McFadden.
Joseph Means McFadden was the epitome of the legal profession, being both an outstanding practitioner and educator of the law, as well as a respected Bar Examiner. He was known and remembered by all for his meticulous attention to detail and his extreme and disarming curtesy.