Joe HoganHandout
Husband, father, educator, curler, football coach, dog lover. Born July 13, 1940, in Lindsay, Ont. Died Dec. 3, 2011, in Peterborough, Ont., of a heart attack, aged 71.
Known as "The Hoag" by his curling buddies, Joe Hogan's motto was, "Have broom, will travel." Over his 58 years of curling, he threw right, swept left, played any position on the rink, made his skip look good and never took the credit.
Joe was the master of the one-liner. His greatest loves were family, friends, sports and dogs (he loved his dogs as much as he loved his friends and family).
Adopted as a baby by Anastasia and Jack Hogan, he and his younger sister grew up in Lindsay, Ont., until the family moved to Peterborough, Ont., when Joe was in Grade 13.
In 1984, Joe married his soulmate, Joan Gaskell. He treasured time spent with his sons from his first marriage, Jason and John-Matthew; their wives, Margaret and Pum; his grandson, Emerson Joseph (E.J.); and his stepson, Jeff.
At 18, Joe set off for teachers' college, starting his career teaching at elementary schools in Peterborough and Oshawa, Ont. He was a natural teacher, and his talents were quickly noticed by school-board administrators. Soon he was one of their youngest principals.
Joe was not a stay-in-the-office type of principal. He believed that if you supported and respected staff, they would be happy in their work and pay it forward in their support and respect of students.
After teaching high-school math and geography, and coaching football and basketball, Joe served as principal at elementary schools in and around Peterborough, retiring in 1995.
Joe's teaching philosophy was simply an extension of how he lived his life. He made everyone – coffee buddies, the young adults he coached in football, fellow educators and friends at the curling club – feel special by being genuinely interested in them and their families. He never said an unkind word, and he was always there when needed.
Joe loved to curl – the people and the game, at all levels. As well as being a club curler, he was always ready for a bonspiel. He could make a pair of curling shoes out of duct tape, and would drive an hour each way in a snowstorm to a curling rink to be a substitute for one game.
Every year, Joe hiked up Mount Washington in New Hampshire with friends. Football was another passion. He coached at local schools until 2010. Although he was electronically challenged and couldn't send an e-mail, he could look up and follow statistics on all the professional teams, his favourite being the Seattle Seahawks.
Every time Joe left the house, he would say to Joan, "Bye. Love ya babe," just as he did on that fateful Saturday morning when he went to visit one of his coffee buddies and suffered a heart attack. "Good sliding" on that big curling rink in the sky, Joe, and remember: "All you have to do is hit the paint."
By Marjorie Grant, Joe's friend, and Joan Hogan, Joe's wife.