IN MEMORIAM

James Hawver, 75; County Official,

Minister, Also Expert In Firefighting

ONEONTA – James Lee Hawver, 75, an Oneonta native, Otsego County official and firefighting specialist who served as fire chief of the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, passed away Friday, July 21, at the Cape Fear Hospice Care Center in Shallotte, the North Carolina community where he  had been living.

He was born at Fox Hospital on Nov. 24, 1941, to Francis Alfred and Kathryn May (Cargill) Hawver.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Veronica LaVerne (Mike) (Nemyo) Hawver, and two sons James M. Hawver of Oneonta and Scott F. and Beverly (Braumuller) Hawver of Ewa Beach, Hawaii.  He is also survived by his grandchildren, Kyali and Evan Hawver, also of Hawaii

Jim played football, basketball and baseball at Unadilla High School.

Upon graduating Unadilla High School, Jim enlisted in the Air Force, where he served four years active and over 20 years in the Reserves and Air National Guard retiring as a fire chief and master sergeant.  He served as a fire chief at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.  He obtained an AS Degree in Fire Science from the University of the Air Force.

He had served with pride in the fire departments and rescue squads of Unadilla, Clinton, N.J., Blue Ridge Hook & Ladder Co. in Pennsylvania, the City of Oneonta and the National Park Service, Kalaupapa, Hawaii, before returning to Unadilla, where he finally turned in his horns in 2008.

He spent his life in public service in addition to his fire service.  He served as director of Natural Disaster and Civil Defense and the first Solid Waste coordinator for Otsego County.  He had served as the protective management supervisor at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown.

Always a man of God, he had served in various rolls in the churches he attended.  While he was living on Kawaii, he obtained his degree in divinity and moved with his wife to Kalaupapa where he ministered to the needs to the last of the Hansen’s Disease (formerly known as leprosy) patients there for four years until his wife’s retirement.  He also served with the Salvation Army in the Hawaiian Islands as a project coordinator.

He also trained and was appointed as a certified nurse in the State of Hawaii and performed Home Health Care often with Hospice patients on the island of Kauai.

Upon his wife’s retirement from the State of Hawaii, they returned to NY in 2000.

When his son James was deployed to Afghanistan with the US Army Special Operations in 2002 and 2004, he was pressed into service as a volunteer Chaplain for the US Army ministering to US Army Special Operations units all along the Eastern Seaboard.  He attended the US Army Chaplains School at Colorado Springs, CO in October 2004.

They moved to warmer weather in Shallotte, NC in 2008.  He had served many churches in the area as a relief minister and mentor to other ministers. He spent most of his time at Shell Point Baptist Church.

Services will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, July 29, at the Shell Point Baptist Church, Shallotte, NC.