John E Hawes Sr.

John E. Hawes Senior (1/2/1918 – 10/15/2013), 95 a Skowhegan native, lived a long, fruitful and impactful life. His career in Maine education spanned over 25 years and included 28 years in the Army in which he attained the rank of Major in 1965. He served in World War II from 1942 to 1946, serving in the Engineer Corps both in Germany and Okinawa. His name is etched on war memorials in Skowhegan and Norridgewock along with the many others who served.

In his high school years, John served as quarterback of the Skowhegan Indian football team for 3 years and as a hurler and pole vaulter on the track team which won a state championship title. He graduated in the class of 1937.

He is a graduate of Colby College, class or 1942 (BA degree in English). After the war he obtained his Master degree in Speech & Drama from Cornell University in 1948. He also earned his CAS (Certified Advanced Study) in Administration and Supervision.

After Cornell he coached and taught physical education at Gardiner High School from 1948 – 1950, serving as co-coach with Gordon Smith, also a Skowhegan native. John coached football, hockey and track while Gordon handled basketball and baseball.

In 1951 he was recalled to active duty due to the Korean conflict for six years in the Adjutant General’s Corps. He was sports officer and also special services officer both in Frankfurt Germany and Governor’s Island (1st Army Headquarters) New York.

Upon his return to Maine and Skowhegan (living at 9 Bush Street with his family) he taught English and Biology at Skowhegan High School in addition to coaching track, cross-country and serving as an assistant on the football staff.

Beginning in 1966 (having moved with his family to Smithfield), he worked in Waterville as Federal Program Coordinator for Head Start for 10 years. At the same time he was elected a director of SAD 54 when it was first organized, serving during the planning stages of the new high school. Retiring from teaching in 1976, he remained in the National Guard and Reserves as a Major until his 1978 retirement from the Army. Some of his decorations were the Asiatic-Pacific campaign medal, the World War II victory medal, the American Theatre ribbon, the Army of Occupation medal (Germany), the National Defense service medal, and the European, African, Middle East campaign medal.

He was an avid golfer and loved fishing and hunting. He also loved his family and was the last surviving member of his family of origin. His father, William H. Hawes, was a Skowhegan judge and graduated from both Colby and Harvard Law School. He walked to work each day from his Madison Avenue home. His mother, Eldena (Smith) Hawes walked to the local hospital by the river each time she gave birth to one of her five children. His father died in 1959 at the age of 80, three months after his wife, Eldena J. (Smith), who died in December of 1958.

His sister, Helen (Hawes) Loomis of Solon died at the age of 77. His brother William (Bill) Hawes died at the age of 83 in 1997 and lived in Pacific Palisades California. His brothers David (93) and George (a few weeks shy of 98) both died in 2002 and had a moving joint memorial at Southside Cemetery where John will join them.

John was fascinated by history and explored has family’s past. For example, his great grandmother (Emma Holbrook Dunton) married George Hawes. They had one son, George Hawes (John’s Dad) born August 5, 1878. At the age of 90 (1944), Emma remembered 4 wars (The Civil war, Spanish-American war, World War I and World War II). She also identified with the Revolutionary War since her mother, Nira Moore Holbrook, was the third grand-daughter from Major John Moore of Revolutionary fame (see Norridgewock cemetery memorial stone) who’s sword with which he fought was at one time on exhibit at the State House in Augusta. Emma’s father, William Holbrook fought in the Civil War and is believed to have fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. The day he returned home from the war he went to bed suffering with ague and fever contracted in the South and did not rise again for nine months. He later died at the age of 65.

John loved and cared for his family, spending many years actively involved with his daughter and son-in-law, Anne and James Dove and grandchildren, Christine, Rebecca, Emily, Philip, and eight great-grandchildren (all of Alaska). His grandchildren have many fond memories of the years spent with their grandfather touring the country and at his home in Smithfield, Maine. He was a lasting, positive influence on his grandchildren and will be greatly missed.

His son, John E. Hawes Jr. (Jay) and daughter-in-law, Claudia, cared for him in his later years. In 2007, John moved closer to family in Sacramento California as his level of care increased. In Sacramento he was surrounded by his grandson Jeremy Holbrook Hawes and wife Linda, his granddaughter, Jacqueline and her husband Vicente Sauceda as well as great grandsons, James, Mark & David (Jeremy’s sons). Jeremy Holbrook followed in John’s and his great grandfather’s footsteps when he joined the Army in 2001 for over 5 years, participating in the Iraq invasion in a transportation battalion (101st out of Ft. Campbell) and later in a second deployment to the Middle East.

John was well cared for by the VA which classified him as 70% hearing disabled (due to the big guns in World War II).

In 1936 he wrote the following poem:

AUTUMN GLORY

Summer, now grown lazy, sluggish,

Has crawled beyond its season

Fall, with torches flaming

Now fights advancing winter,

While lean lines of birds swim through the air,

Like minnows in a pool of blue.

The drowsy frog has ceased his summer song

And settled into slumber.

The toiling squirrel stops,

To scan his golden hoard.

And so, now,

Before the winds of Autumn wane,

And leaves begin to turn and fall,

And while the scents of frosted clover

And drying late-mown hay

Still linger in the air,

I must go and wander through this autumn glory.

There will be a graveside memorial on Saturday, 11/9/2013 at 11:00 AM at South Side Cemetery in Skowhegan (at the end of Pine Street). There will also be a catered gathering immediately following at Smart & Edward Funeral Home, 183 Madison Ave., Skowhegan.