Merlyn Wayne Hobson

MERLYN WAYNE HOBSON 1925 - 2014 In 1881, John and Johanna Johnson emigrated from Denmark to the United States, settling in Smith County, Kansas. Thirty-five years later they moved to Colorado with their daughter, Anna who had married Ernest Hobson, the son of English parents. Ernest and Anna bought land southeast of Yuma on the edge of the sandhills; the Johnsons bought land east of town along Highway 34. Ernest and Anna had three children. Norma became an English teacher and published writer, leaving a wonderful series of essays about growing up on that farm. Elmo, the oldest sibling, graduated from high school, then persuaded his Grandpa Johnson to sell him the Highway 34 farm on favorable terms. The kid proved to be a good farmer, hit bumper crops three years in a row, and completely repaid the loan to his grandfather, much to the disgust of the old Dane. Since he was the late baby of the family, it was years later that Wayne bought the sandhills farm from Ernest and began farming with a DC Case tractor of course, no turning brakes or hydraulics and ten-foot implements. Wayne took over Elmo's farm when the elder brother moved to Boulder, and then he moved up from the Case to two John Deere two-bangers – he would say they were the finest tractors ever made. Wayne was known about town as the quiet man in the Big Mac overalls, the man who could drive the straightest row in the county and who was in church every Sunday, his two children sporting long, dangling perfect attendance pins. He served on the church board and on the board of directors of the Equity Coop Oil Company when it was located on Main Street. Wayne was not a social man, although he and Wilma played cards once a month over many, many years with a group of friends known simply as the Supper Club. This was a time when the men all wore coats and ties for an evening of pinochle. Wayne's life just barely touched the era of farming with horses, ran through the Great Depression and a world war, and he began farming before there were commercial fertilizers, struggling to squeeze a living from a small sandhills farm. Then he saw the region, and his farm, transformed by irrigation. He sold the farm in 1971 and took a job as parts manager at L & L Implement, where he worked longer hours than on the farm. Wayne and Wilma eventually retired to Fort Collins. Wayne Hobson passed away on March 24. There is no doubt that he would have counted among his greatest pleasures looking out over a good field of milo, watching the cattle graze in the sandlove grass after a summer rain, hosting Saturday night supper for the Reverend Nieves's and later the Reverend Harvey's every week without fail, and whiling away the retirement hours in the woodshop. His spirit still floats in the air here in that shop as we close it down, as it must float over that poor sandhills farm. To feel it, however, one must be very still, because he was a very quiet man. Wayne was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Wilma, and by his brother and sister. He is survived by son, Barry, of Estes Park; daughter, Peggy and husband, Chuck of Fort Collins; granddaughters, Brooke and husband, Ken Colaizzi of Littleton and Brittany and husband, Eric Stinson of Parker; and the very precious great-grandchildren, Domenic and Sabrina. He is also survived by nieces and nephews. Contributions can be made to the Merlyn Wayne Hobson Memorial Fund in care of Bohlender Funeral Chapel, 121 W. Olive Street, Fort Collins, CO 80524. A Private Graveside Service will be held.

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Merlyn Wayne Hobson

February 6, 1925 - March 24, 2014