In Memory of …
Charles William “Chuck” Hogue (1937-2003)
A new feature on this site will be the addition of timely memorials to special people in our greater family. I’ll start with a feature on my dad, Charles William “Chuck” Hogue. Dad was born on 18 Mar 1937, in San Jose, California. He grew up in Gilroy, CA, graduated from Gilroy High in 1955, and shortly thereafter, married my mom, Martha Ann Murray, on 30 Sep 1955. Chuck worked hard most of his life; as most in his generation did. He hustled farm chores and worked at the Sunsweet prune packaging plant in his early teens, socking away money to buy the ’34 Ford in the picture above. I never counted how many times he said it, but it was several…”I wish I would have kept that car!” He worked two jobs most of the time when we were kids, until he finally developed skills enough to become one of the best contractor paint salesmen (and eventually Corporate V.P. for Kelly-Moore Paints) in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was widely respected for his paint knowledge, to the point where he told me, tearfully, during his last days in his struggle with cancer, that “I should have written a book about the paint business in the West”. He retired to the golf community in Rancho Murieta on 1 Jul 2002, and passed away there 24 Dec 2003, after battling renal cell carcinoma for two months, likely from the effects of living and breathing paint and petroleum products for 45 years. We miss him a lot, and I hope to do a more thorough biography of him on this site at a later date.
Hogue Connection Update
Today, I re-published the bio of William G. Hogue (about 1800 words worth) to the Red River Trails page, including photos of important documents. Look for the next installment sometime next week.
Countdown to Rubottom…36 days away…