John Joergen Hanson

April 21, 1931 - December 22, 2018

John Joergen Hanson, age 87, of Beach, North Dakota passed away Saturday, December 22, 2018. Visitation will be 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Wednesday, December 26, 2018 at Silha Funeral Home in Beach. A Funeral Service will be held at 2:00 PM on Thursday, December 27, 2018 at the First Lutheran Church in Beach with Pastor Dana Holter officiating. Interment will follow Services at the Beach Lutheran Cemetery. Silha Funeral Home of Beach has been entrusted with the arrangements. John was born to Otto and Florence (Talbott) Hanson in Beach on April 21, 1931 and spent his childhood years in the Golva community. As a child, it was reported he played at times, but claimed he spent many hours in Otto’s lumber yard helping out with customers. Between his sophomore and junior years of high school, the family moved to Beach, where he graduated from Beach High School. John attended Wahpeton School of Science and then volunteer enlisted in the US Air Force. John was stationed in Okinawa during the Korean War where his training and assigned duty was to load and repair cameras used on bomber missions for surveillance and assess damage inflicted from bombing runs. John was discharged and returned from duty to Beach where he took over the responsibility of running Hanson Lumber Company as his father’s health was rapidly declining and he passed within a few months of Lou Gehrig’s disease. John ran lumberyards in communities of Beach and Dickinson, North Dakota and Baker, Ekalaka, and Fairview, Montana. He employed several local folks in the operation of the lumberyards. John married Kathleen Hogoboom on Dec 28, 1956 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Sentinel Butte, North Dakota. Together, John and Kathleen raised three sons and two daughters. John had a high bar for performance and usually had the kids employed helping out at the lumberyard for their summers, Saturdays and any days when school was not in session. Summer vacations were taken each year traveling to western Montana and Idaho where John would meet up with local mill operators and learn what wood products were being produced. John enjoyed driving around the local countryside and visiting with people. He knew each person in the local area and which land was owned, farmed or ranched. When driving through the countryside, he would share who lived on each quarter and the succession of ownership of the land. Among his early deliveries from the Golva yard was a delivery of cement to the first well drilled on Cabin Creek, where he had driven cross country through pastures and through creek bottoms to reach the location as there were no roads to be followed. John would tell of sales of siding and shingles to each home site which are now abandoned and falling in ruins. John’s was preceded in death by his parents, Otto & Florence (Talbott) Hanson; his sister, Louise Hanson and brother, Richard Hanson. John is survived by his sister, Elaine Hansen; his wife, Kathleen Hanson; his sons, Kris Hanson, Weldon (Sarah) Hanson and Lowell (Lisa) Hanson; his daughters; Joleen Mische and Jule (Clint) Gronhovd; five grandchildren, Hillary Hanson, Mitchell Hanson, Carlin Mische, Nichole Gronhovd (Chad) Boehm and Danielle Gronhovd. Memorials can be made in John’s name to Home on the Range, Sentinel Butte or the Golden Valley Manor Home, Beach. Remembrances and condolences may be shared with the family at: www.silhafuneralhomes.com.