John Hogan Memorial Services on St Patrick's Day

By Don Rackemann

Memorial Services in memory of the Colonel, John Hogan, will be held on St Patrick's Day, March 17, 2005, at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, starting at 11am. The Museum is located at 1101 West McKinley Avenue, Pomona, California. It is on the L.A. County Fairplex grounds, right next door to the Sheraton Hotel. The phone number for the Museum is 909-622-2133. John was a hot rodder and supporter of the museum and died from a heart attack. His friendliness and quick Irish wit will be sorely missed. He let no man go by without a greeting and a kind word and it is appropriate that we pay our respects to him on St Patrick's Day, which would have amused him. He grew up in the Irish neighborhood of Chicago and hung out at The Greek's, Chris Karamesines' shop in Chicago. Hogan was the first crew chief and mechanic on Don Schumacher's championship Funny Car team. Recently he was a proud member of the Cal-Rods Car Club and a supporter of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. John had just returned from an official tour of the Pentagon where he was working on a project to raise money for the Armed Forces Memorial Fund. Our condolences go out to his family, friends and fellow car club members.