They were married on August 28, 1948, in Denver, Colo. Paul's career in the American Foreign Service and then with the United Nations took the couple to Washington, D.C.; Rome; Hamburg; Djakarta; Vienna and Westchester County in New York before they settled in Durham in 1999.

Present at the celebration were friends and relatives from near and far. Immediate family included Paul and Joan's two daughters, Karen McCusker from Divonne-les-Bains, France, and Karen's daughter, Claire, and Mary McLoughney from Chapel Hill, her husband, Edmond, and their children, Tessa and Rory; and their son, Paul Alexander McCusker, from Maconnex, France, his wife, Elsa Alvarez, and their sons, Daniel and Samuel.

Not physically present, but never forgotten, was Joan and Paul's son, Ian Francis, who passed away in 1985.