Obituary of Stephen Douglas Hodgeman
Stephen (Steve) Douglas Hodgeman (77) a longtime St Maries ID resident passed away at his home on March 24th. He was born on December 1st, 1946, in Oroville CA. Steve grew up around the Stonyford, Elk Creek and Willows area. One of his favorite high school memories he shared was of the day he skipped school to go fishing and Field and Stream Magazine were in the area doing a story and took a picture of him with the fish he caught. The picture ended up on the cover of the magazine, and needless to say, he got caught for skipping school.
After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army where he was in the 101st Airborne 87th division. Steve served in Vietnam and was honorably discharged in 1969 and found himself in North Carolina where he received his electrical certificate from Johnson College of Technology. He met the love of his life Jean in Fayetteville, NC and after 2 weeks of dating the couple married on November 29, 1969. Steve and Jean moved their family to Idaho in 1973 where Steve's family was the most important thing in the world to him. They had 4 children together, 11 grandchildren and in September will have 22 great grandchildren. Steve was an extremely involved parent, grandparent and great-grandparent.
Steve had many jobs in the area and after his oldest son graduated, he went to work in Nome, Alaska and then the North Slopes. He retired in 2016 but before retiring from Udelhoven in Alaska, he also went to work for a time in Africa. In his younger years, he always looked forward to hunting camp with his best friend of over 50 years Joe Burress and sons Rod, Scott and grandsons Blake, Ashton, Gabe, Matt and son in-laws Ken and Jeremy just to name a few that went to camp. As the years passed on, he still looked forward to hunting camp, but Steve and Jean would also take their granddaughters Jessica, Jasmine, Hilary, Rissa and Haley to a motel to have swimming parties. Later on, the granddaughters decided to invite the grandsons to join in on those parties and Steve also looked forward to the summers his granddaughters Nikki and Chelsea would come to visit from New Jersey.
In his spare time, Steve enjoyed watching rodeos and old westerns. He loved North Idaho and read many books about the area. He and Jean loved going 4-wheeling, exploring, fishing, and hosting at Huckleberry Campground. In the winter, they enjoyed going to AZ and the adventures they went on with friends there. Steve had the gift of gab, and loved to visit with anyone that had a moment.
Steve is survived by his wife Jean at the family home in St. Maries, ID; sons Rodney Hodgeman, Scott Hodgeman, daughter Ronda (Jeremy) Stephenson all of St Maries, ID and daughter Sonia (Ken)Ross of Coeur d' Alene, ID; brothers David Taylor and Chris Gruwell of St Maries, ID; sister Debbie Lehman of Cottonwood, CA , Sarah (Graham) Harwood of Vancouver WA, Donna (Mike) Main of Clarkston, WA and Annett Coats of Dunn, NC; 11 grandchildren; 20 great grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews. Lots of bonus children and grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his mother in-law Vera Thornton, sister Elayne Hodgeman and brothers in-law Allen and Ricky Thornton.
Military Honors will be presented at Woodlawn Cemetery on April 13th at noon followed by a Celebration of Life at the Elks Lodge in St Maries at 1pm.
