Howard passed away at the St. Cloud Hospita
l on 6/34/2013.
Funeral Service 11 AM Saturday, 6/29/2013 at Good Shepherd Free Lutheran Church of Cokato
Visitation: 5-8 PM Friday at Church and 1hr prior to service on Saturday.
Interment Riverside Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife, Adeline
of Annandale; children, Darlene (Dave) Zylstra of Maple Lake, Patty (Steve)
Hohag of St. Michael, and Ken (Bev) Hokkanen of Chaska; grandchildren Kelley
(Erik) Johnson, Joe (Jody) Zylstra, Alison (Ben) Menk, Ryan (Lisa) Zylstra,
Ashley (Jeremiah Flintrop) Zylstra, Ben (Laurie) Hokkanen, and Sara (Clint
Gunkel) Hokkanen; eight great-grandchildren; nephew George (Frances) Abernathy;
niece Liz (Virgil) Carlson, and many relatives and friends.
Howard was preceded in death by his
parents, Oscar and Sarah; brothers Walter, Rayno, Elmer, sisters Anna, Elma;
and half- sister Mayme Abernathy.
Howard, the son of Oscar and Sarah
Hokkanen was born on the farm near West Albion on April 26, 1926. He attended the Gunnary country school and
Annandale High School. During his High
School Junior year a tornado hit the family farm and there was so much work
that he quit school to work on the farm.
In 1962 he received his High School diploma when he passed the G.E.D.
tests at St. Cloud College. Howard
continued to work on the farm and for a short time he worked at the Ford Motor
Plant in St. Paul. On April 23, 1949 he
was united in marriage to Adeline Lappi at the Apostolic Church Parsonage in
Cokato. They lived and worked on the
family farm. In 1977 they built a new home on the farm and have enjoyed living
there for 36 years. In 1962 he stopped
dairy farming and continued to crop farm.
In 1962 he started working for the Agriculture and Stabilization and Conservation
(A.S.C.) as a Federal Crop Insurance Agent for Wright, Hennepin and Carver
counties. In 1973 he became the Manager
for the Cokato Mutual Fire Insurance Company and also worked as an insurance
agent for the company. He worked as the
manager for 23 years, was on the board of directors for 58 years and recently
retired as an insurance agent in 2012.
He enjoyed fishing since he was a
young boy when his father took the boys fishing on rainy summer days when they
could not work on the farm and he continued to enjoyed many fishing outings
with family and friends. He was active
on his bowling team and enjoyed winning several championships. He loved sports and enjoyed playing in casual
baseball, football and basketball games.
He continued to follow all the professional Minnesota sport teams
throughout his life; especially baseball.
Howard loved living on the farm and he loved his family and enjoyed
keeping up with all their activities. He
liked nothing better than to visit and enjoy meals with his family and
friends.
Memorial preferred to the Good
Shepherd Free Lutheran Church of Cokato and CentraCare Health Foundation (St.
Cloud Hospital).