Paul Douglas Hokenstad, April 6, 1939–November 15, 2011

Paul Hokenstad from Griswold, Iowa (population under 2,000) spent two years at the College (1957-59). He was a resident of Clark Hall. In his sophomore year he was in the cast of the play “Cave Dwellers” and a member of the Grinnell Players. I knew his brother John (Class of 1958) our freshman year when we both lived in Gates Hall.

Paul loved baseball and was a middle infielder on the College team. I got to know Paul through our time together on this team and always liked him. He was soft-spoken, friendly and witty. When I talked with him on

the telephone in December 2010, I was amazed at his pitch-by-pitch recall of one of our Grinnell baseball games that had long escaped my memory.

Paul also loved football even though he was small (5′-10″ and 135 lbs.). In his senior year of high school he

was the starting quarterback and was No. 1 in Iowa for most passing yards and touchdowns. This success encouraged him to join the Grinnell football squad as a quarterback both years. A 1958 program described him as “Small but fearless. A fine passer and an intelligent signal caller.” In one game that year the regular quarterback or tailback, John Copeland, was forced to leave the game, and Coach “Pete” Peterson put Paul in the game to take over running the team on the field. Despite jitters, he was able to keep the offense going, but a hard tackle broke his collar bone and ended his season.

After leaving the College after his sophomore year, Paul worked in the family International Harvester dealership in Griswold for a short period of time. In late 1959 he moved to northern California where he worked as a computer operator for Lockheed Corporation and where he got married and became the father of three children. In 1973 Paul moved back to Griswold with his son Pete and worked at the family IH dealership.

During his years on the West Coast Paul developed an interest in archaeology and anthropology. In 1975 he moved to Laramie, Wyoming to pursue that interest as a major at the University of Wyoming, where he graduated at age 40 with a bachelor’s degree. Afterwards he worked for the Wyoming Office of the State Archaeologist in Laramie.

Throughout his life Paul liked to hike and climb mountains. These avocations found a great home in Wyoming.

When I talked with Paul in December 2010 I discovered he was battling prostate cancer and had moved from his home in Laramie to return to Griswold so he could live with his children in the family home and obtain medical treatment in nearby Omaha. I conveyed my best wishes for his successful medical treatment and my hope that he could attend our forthcoming class reunion and visit me in the Twin Cities to go to a Twins baseball game in its beautiful new ballpark. Paul wanted to come to the reunion and see a Twins game. Unfortunately his prostate cancer metastasized into bone cancer, and he was unable to do either one. He died on November 15, 2011 of the disease.

He is survived by his children, Neil Hokenstad, of Sonoma, California, Pete Hokenstad, of Griswold, Iowa, and Anne Hokenstad and her partner, Bart Wright, of Denver; his former wife, Sky Williams, of Gilroy, California; his brother and sister-in-law, John and Marge Hokenstad, of Greenbrae, California; his niece, Christin Hokenstad, of San Francisco; and many loved friends and extended family.

(Paul Hokenstad Obituary, Laramie Boomerang (Dec. 7, 2011).)