John Michael Hogmire, 63, of Burwell, Nebraska died November 16, 2019 at the Valley County Health Systems Hospital in Ord, Nebraska.
John’s wishes were to be cremated. A Mass of Christian burial will be 10:30am Friday, November 22, 2019 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Burwell, Nebraska. Inurnment will be in Cottonwood Cemetery in Burwell. Fr. Scott Harter will officiate. A memorial visitation will be Thursday from 5 – 7 p.m. with a 7:00 p.m. Rosary at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
John was born January 15, 1956 at Rockville Centre, NY to Homer and Janean (Klaess) Hogmire. He became involved very early on with the fire department – though on the wrong side – when he was run over by a car at the tender age of 4. He had a full leg cast that weighed more than him & was told he would probably never walk. He proved them wrong & actually became a very good sprinter, even qualifying for Olympic tryouts. With his father being part of the Rockville Centre Volunteer Fire Dept, it was a major part of their lives. John joined as soon as he could in his teenage years. John graduated from St. Agnes Catholic High School in New York in 1974. After graduation he went to Paul Smiths College in upstate New York and received a Forestry Degree.
John then moved with his family to Ft. Myers, FL where he worked for the Division of Forestry, mostly in fire control. In July of 1981 he was hired by South Trail Fire Dept as a firefighter/EMT where his lifelong love of the fire department & helping people really blossomed. He always took classes to continue his education and worked his way up to engineer, then lieutenant, and eventually a captain at STFD. Their dept had public education for kids with a fire truck simulator room and puppet show about fire safety. He always loved educating and interacting with the kids, or for that matter, talking & teaching fire safety to anyone & everyone. He truly loved his job & the “brothers” were his second family. In 1982 he met Kathy Doggett at, where else, but South Trail. They were married on April 7, 1984 in Ft. Myers, FL where for the first time he got to meet Kathy’s very large & boisterous family – lucky for her it was too late for him to back out! To this union 5 children were born. They made their home in their log cabin with lots of birthday parties & holidays celebrated at the fire house while he was on duty.
In June 2003, Kathy and the kids moved back to Nebraska where they had built a home on part of the Doggett ranch. John retired from STFD in February of 2004 and moved to NE in March 2004. He was blessed then to get hired on as the “old man” at Grand Island Fire Dept where he worked with his new “brothers” for 11 years. He retired from GIFD in 2016. After moving to Nebraska John joined the Burwell Volunteer FD also and spent endless hours doing all the wonderful things our dept does for our community. He did fire safety education for the schools, brought the truck and ambulance to Head Start preschool where all the kids grew to love him as Fireman John. He was a bus driver for school sport activities and was working for VCHS as an ambulance driver for hospital transfers. John was a faithful blood donor his whole adult life. He was educated in Catholic schools and was a faith-filled good Christian man his whole life. He spent this life in the occupation of helping others, and it was truly who he was. Even in his death, he continued helping as he was an organ donor and parts of him were harvested to help others.
John is survived by his wife Kathy Hogmire of Burwell, Nebraska. Five children, Megan and Clinton Olcott of Burwell, Nebraska, Kelci and Joe Shoemaker of Ord, Nebraska, Michela and Ethan Gaukel of Burwell, Nebraska, Cody Hogmire of Burwell, Nebraska and Joel Hogmire of Burwell, Nebraska and six grandchildren, Sam, Natalie, and Lance Olcott, Bennett and Elaina Shoemaker, and Emmalyn Gaukel. Two sisters, Karen and John Mirando of Oceanside, New York and Elisabeth and Jim Kurkimilis of Eagleville, Pennsylvania. He was loved by all of Kathy’s siblings: Jerry & Teresa Doggett, Bev & Ray Brown, Don & Linda Doggett, Marj & Bill Manning, Ray & Mary Doggett, Roger & Anita Doggett, and all their families.
John was preceded in death by his parents Homer & Janean Hogmire, his in-laws Dick & Elaine Doggett, and a grandson, Alex Olcott.
