In Memory of

Vincent Martin
Hogan

2017

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Hall Funeral Services - Estevan
1506 - 4th Street
Estevan, Saskatchewan
CANADA
S4A 0X6

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Obituary for Vincent Martin Hogan

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Life Story for Vincent Martin Hogan

Eulogy given by Terry McBride for his Uncle Vincent Hogan

My Uncle Vince Hogan was a welder by trade, a devoted family man and a man of faith.

Vince was born 83 years ago in 1933 during the Dirty Thirties. He was the second youngest of seven children born to John and Mary Hogan who farmed near Beadle, Saskatchewan, just east of Kindersley. Vince was predeceased by his parents, his sister and his four older brothers.


Let me read you a story written by my mother, Florence, who was Vince’s sister. She remembered their life on the farm in the 1930s. "We were very poor on the farm. We had no crops for years. My parents came from homes that believed in religion, so my mother and father tried their best to see that we learned our prayers and catechism. It was hard for my mother as she knew her prayers well in French, so my Dad helped us learn the Hail Mary, Our Father and Act of Contrition. The Sisters from Rosetown used to come to Kindersley to teach us religion in the church. The folks in Kindersley never saw us much before as we were poor and never went to town. My mother made suits for the boys out of old clothes that people gave us. I don't know how she did it. I believe it was our faith that helped us through those bad times.”

Similarly, today, our faith will help us through this sad time.

My mother told me about a polio epidemic that hit the Hogan home hard. The young Hogan boys caught the paralyzing polio infection. They were not hospitalized. They were quarantined and nursed at home by mother Mary and their sister, Florence. The young boys needed absolute bed rest. They could not move their paralyzed limbs. They eventually recovered with the help of hot flannel cloths, massage and lots of prayers.

In 1943, when Vince was age 10, his parents bought a hotel in Kindersley. The whole family, except for Frank, the oldest boy, lived in the hotel. 20 boarders ate their meals together at a long table. Vince lived at the hotel while he went to school in Kindersley. Vince and his brother Bernie washed dishes at their parents’ hotel to earn enough money to go see movies at the Rex Theatre.

In 1947 Vince’s parents decided to give up their money-losing hotel business and moved back to the farm at Beadle. The noisy social life of the hotel was corrupting the boys.

Vince completed grade 8 at Mylrea School near Beadle. Then he took his grade 9 by correspondence. After working for a year, Vince moved back to Kindersley and enrolled in Grade 10. He had to pay his own rent to stay in the dormitory with 80 other students. Because he paid his own way, Vince must have really applied himself to his studies because he eventually graduated from Grade 12 with honours. Vince won a university entrance scholarship and moved to Saskatoon to take first year engineering classes at the University of Saskatchewan. However, the math and science classes were too difficult to continue. Thanks to his welding skills learned in the shop class at Kindersley High School, Vince had the opportunity to make $3.50 an hour in pipeline construction.

Vince borrowed a small home-made trailer from his father. He set out to follow the pipeline. He stayed in Manitoba towns such as Morden, Altona and Winkler when he worked with Bannister Pipeline Construction. At age 22, Vince bought his own 32-foot trailer and spent the winters in Saskatoon.

While he lived in Saskatoon Vince met a pretty blonde named Melvina, the second youngest of 8 Olsen children. The Olsens had also moved into Saskatoon from Kindersley. Vince married Melvina, when she was still a teenager, in a simple ceremony in a private home in Saskatoon in 1956.

Vince and Vi spent the winter of 1959 in Estevan with another pipeline worker named Jamie Watt. During the next five years Vince and Melvina had four children – first two girls and then two boys.

Vince worked for a pipeline construction company based in Estevan called United Contractors from 1965 to 1975. They built pipelines all over Saskatchewan and Alberta. Vince and Vi and their 4 children moved their trailer to places like Devon, Pincher Creek, Consort and Wainright. I was happy to work on the same crew as Vince for a few months in 1971 when United Contractors built a pipeline from Devon to Rocky Mountain House in Alberta.

Working on the pipeline and moving their trailer from town to town was tough on the kids who attended three different schools per year. Vince decided to quit pipeline construction in 1976. He worked as a welder and pipefitter for companies such as Flint or Shindle and Bazin in Estevan. He was often called out to work on the oil rigs.

Vince was predeceased by his two adult sons Ronald in 1991 and Allan in 2009.

It seems fitting then that Vince and Vi were blessed to have six grandsons. Their daughter Susan has three boys -- Stephen, Curtis and Kelly. Their daughter Shirley has three boys -- Douglas, Terrence and Christopher.

Now there are eight great-grandchildren. Susan has a new grandson, Angus.

Shirley has two grandsons and five granddaughters. Shirley lives in New Denver, BC with her children -- all except Sterling who lives in Calgary.

Susan and Randy live in Regina and so do her three sons. Susan and Randy made many trips to Estevan to help Vince take care of Melvina who had been diagnosed with dementia a year and a half ago. After 60 years of marriage, it was a tough decision for Vince to move his beloved partner into the care home at St Joseph’s Hospital.

What are some of the things that Vince liked to do?

Vince enjoyed taking pictures. He made some home movies of his family when they were young.

He liked golfing with John and Gloria; Allen and April.

He also enjoyed fishing, hockey games and curling. He curled on a team in Estevan. He enjoyed meeting friends for coffee and food at McDonalds and A&W. He enjoyed Sunday drives, checking out a neighbor's backyard to see how well they landscaped it. He liked looking at the new double-wide trailers at Estevan Trailer Sales.

Just like his father and his brothers, Vince enjoyed working in the garage on cars and fixing things that were broken. He was kind of a MacGyver. He could fix almost anything.

I heard a story about when they were young, Vince, Bernie and Cecil helped their Dad build a Model T with junk yard scraps. With Cecil behind the wheel, Dad cranking the engine and Vince using his horse Molly to pull, they got the Model T running. They later sold that Model T for $100 and bought a one-ton Chevy truck.

Vince also loved gardening. He had a greenhouse with tomatoes.

He enjoyed watching Joyce Meyer Ministries. He liked sharing information he learned with his brother Cecil. He was a fan of Western movies. He liked making lists of important phone numbers and dates on cardboard cut from cereal boxes. He made the cardboard just the right size to fit in his shirt pocket.

Susan remembers her Dad kissing his kids good night and saying their bedtime prayers with them. He always said “I love you.” He would knock on the door and say “Get to sleep.”

Playing with his grandchildren was one of Vince’s favourite things to do. Susan remembers how he would remind his kids to turn the lights out when they lived at home and even when they were grown up. He taught his kids table manners, how to sit up straight in their chairs and and how to chew food properly a hundred times. All of these are things we appreciate later in life.

He liked going sightseeing. The most memorable of their family trips was a 10-day trip to Disneyland. Vince usually worked a lot and didn't take too many holidays. But one time he broke his foot at work. He had it in a cast. He took advantage of the down time to drive the family all the way to California. Unfortunately when they came back to Estevan he developed a little bit of gangrene in his foot. But that all healed.

Shirley remembers how Sunday afternoons were reserved exclusively for family time. Vince always paid special attention to whatever gave his kids joy. He made sure they took Sunday afternoons off for family time during in each and every trip when they saw the sites around Saskatchewan.

Marilyn told me how Uncle Vince made one last epic family tour in his motorhome last May 2016. Even though he needed two canes to get around, Vince decided he was going to do it. He got everything ready and hit the road. And then he told Susan what he was doing. He was feeling heart-broken after having to put Vi in the care home. He needed to reflect on life and discuss his heartfelt feelings face to face with his only surviving brother, Cecil, even though Vince and Cecil talked every day by phone.

Vince drove his motorhome to Kindersley, which is usually about a 6-hour drive. At least he stopped for a couple-hour nap along the way. He arrived safely at the farm 365 miles later. Cecil and Vince had a very good visit. They played with horses, sat and discussed many things out on the cement pad from the moment they woke until the sun set at night. They even had Marilyn make sure the roof on the camper was properly sealed again. Many times Vince yelled and teased Marilyn "Are you doing a good job? Are you sure it's not going to leak?” Marilyn did as she was told, with love and lots of laughs.

Vince and Cecil both went over to Dodsland to visit Sandra and Auntie Dora. Then he stopped and visited Auntie Hilda and family in Outlook on his way home to Estevan. He never even stopped in Regina! What an amazing feat of endurance for an 82-year-old to drive a motor home that distance to visit his family for one last time while he still could!

In one of Vince’s last conversations, while he was holding hands with Marilyn and Susan, he said: “I did the best I could to change things for the good. Maybe the next generation will do a better job. I feel that I have lived well in this life and I have lived long enough. So, why mess with nature? Money can't replace good health. . . .I wish I was young again.”

I will miss Uncle Vince. He was a hard-working and devoted family man with a curiosity about life. I believe that he is waiting for us in his new home, and he will invite his family and friends with a big smile.

And if there are cars in heaven that need fixing, or pipes that need to be welded, I am sure Vince will help keep them in good running order.