Hugh J Hanlon

Hugh J. Hanlon April 5, 1919 - October 19, 2013

Hugh Hanlon, of Faribault, 94, died Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013, surrounded by family at Rice County District One Hospital.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 10:30 a.m., at Divine Mercy Catholic Church, 139 Mercy Drive, Faribault. Interment will be held at St. Patrick''s Cemetery in Shieldsville, with military honors provided by the Rice County Central Veterans Association.

Visitation will be held at Parker Kohl Funeral Home in Faribault on Tuesday, Oct. 22, from 4 to 7 p.m. and at the church on Wednesday one hour prior to services.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Rice County Historical Society or to Divine Mercy for Masses said in his name.

Hugh Joseph Hanlon, the son of T. Edward Hanlon and Catherine (Byrne) Hanlon was born on a farm in Garrison, North Dakota, on April 5, 1919. His parents were homesteaders, who lived for a time in a sod house near Garrison. With his family - his parents and five siblings - Hugh moved to Rice County, Minnesota, in 1923. They lived at the Byrne family farm and then at two other farms in Rice County before moving to Faribault in 1927. Hugh was educated first at rural schools and then at Immaculate Conception Parochial School in Faribault.

After he finished 8th grade at Immaculate Conception in 1934, Hugh moved with his parents and younger brother to Chicago, where his older siblings already resided. There, he attended the massive Lane Tech high school, where he learned wiring, carpentry, and other skills, in addition to the usual academic subjects. After graduating in 1938, he worked for a time before joining the army in November 1940. He reached the rank of staff sergeant and remained in the Army until just after the end of World War II in 1945. Hugh was posted in Chicago for most of his stint in the army, including an assignment in the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Clinic at Gardiner General Hospital, where he developed in

interest in optometry.

While serving in the army in Chicago, in March 1940, Hugh met Agnes O''Halloran, the daughter of Irish immigrants then attending high school in the city. They were married on Nov. 6, 1943, in Chicago, and continued to live there through the end of the war and Hugh''s three years of study at the Northern Illinois College of Optometry, which he attended on the GI Bill.

After he finished optometry school in 1949, Hugh moved with Agnes and their first two children, James E. and John J., to St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he opened an independent optometry practice. In 1952, the family relocated to Faribault, where Hugh continued to practice optometry until retiring in 1993. Hugh and Agnes''s other six children - Mary H., Robert C., Catherine A., William K., Patricia E., and Edward T. - were born in Faribault.

In addition to his optometry practice, Hugh kept busy with myriad activities. He was active in the Toastmasters Club, the Lions Club, the Knights of Columbus, and the Immaculate Conception PTA. He served as president of the local Lions Club and as the first male president of the IC PTA, and as grand knight of the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus. Hugh also volunteered for several years as an assistant Boy Scout leader and worked for decades with the Rice County Historical Society, which he served as president for two terms. Under his leadership, the Historical Society greatly expanded and improved its museum on the Rice County fairgrounds.

Hugh''s devotion to local history was steeped in his own past - the joy he had found in the farm- and small-town environment of his youth. In his autobiography, which he finished just days before his death, he wrote fondly of the simple pleasures to be found in the Faribault of his boyhood, and after he inherited the Byrne farm in 1975, he spent countless hours there refurbishing old buildings and relishing rural life.

Hugh was a voracious reader throughout his adult life and a prolific writer as well. In addition to his extensive correspondence with relatives, Hugh frequently sent in letters to the editor to the Faribault Daily News in which he espoused his conservative political beliefs. Hugh also delighted in writing short stories and poems, especially limericks. He self-published two volumes of his stories and poems, Potpourri and Potpourri II and another volume, Ask Gramp, which he shared with friends and relatives. Hugh also completed an autobiography, Who Is Hugh, shortly before his death. Since his retirement in 1993, Hugh also spent a considerable amount of time entertaining his grandchildren, and later his great-grandchildren, with stories, jokes, and magic tricks.