Funk served the United States Army, from 1943 to 1946 in Korea and Okinawa as a heavy anti aircraft artillery mechanic and instructor, warehouseman, and artist/publicist/graphic designer for special events at Headquarters Company, Asiatic Command.

[citation needed] During his time as an apprentice, Funk printed for many well-known artists, such as Jean Charlot, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Emerson Woelffer and June Wayne.

[5][6] At Tamarind, he worked alongside Garo Z. Antreasian at printing lithographs for guest artists and training future printmakers.

Here he trained apprentice printmakers and printed for numerous artists including Joyce Treiman, Dan Stolpe, and Arnold Schifrin.

During this time Dan Stolpe gathered all of his artwork and equipment and brought Joe to live with him in Santa Cruz, California, where the two of them developed the Native Images printmaking program and facility.

A few weeks before his death Joe gave his life's work to Native Images, a collection of art that represents his 50 years as an American artist.

That was a time when fine lithographic printing hung by a slender thread in the United States: unlike today, there were then only a very few dedicated printers with knowledge of the craft.