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Obituary
Bangor Daily News Posted Nov. 15, 2011
ISLAND FALLS ? Harold K. Hoar, 64, died Nov. 13, 2011, surrounded by his family in Houlton. He was born Oct. 11, 1947, in Island Falls, son of Harold H. and Catherine (Nicholson) Hoar.
He attended Island Falls High School and marched with the graduating class of 1967, where he played basketball and helped out local teams throughout the years. Harold truly loved sports and his greatest love was high school basketball. He was a long-term fixture for decades at Southern Aroostook area gyms, especially at Southern Aroostook Community High School boys and girls varsity basketball games. The highlight of each basketball season was for Harold to attend the high school basketball play-off tournaments at the Bangor Auditorium, where he enjoyed many adventures with high school basketball fans, players, coaches and officials. The Maine Principal's Association and International Association of Approved Basketball Officials were instrumental in ensuring that his time there was a great experience for him. The IAABO made Harold an honorary lifetime member of their association more than 25 years ago. On Feb. 14, 2009, he was honored with "Harold Hoar Day" at the Eastern Maine Basketball Tournament, making this a truly special day for him. In recent years this trip was still made possible due to the staff of Community Living Association, especially Harold's friends and co-horts, Mark Morin and Rob Moran.
He is survived by his stepmother, Marion Hoar of Island Falls; sister, Sharman Drew-Ball of Aurora, Colo.; nephew, Josiah Drew and his wife, Heidi, of San Diego and their children, Caleb, Hannah, Joshua, Luke and Noah; nephew, Benjamin Drew and his wife, Jill, of Houlton and their children, Ashley, Jacob, Emma and Samuel; three stepbrothers, a stepsister, an aunt and several cousins. The family would like to thank the Green Valley Association for the role they played in his life and express a very special thank you to Harold's extended family at CLA for their wonderful care and considerations, always ready to give a hug and a kiss. He will be missed by many, especially his friend, Peter Webb, and members of the IAABO. Thank you also to the doctors, nurses and other staff of the Intensive Care Unit and Acute Care Unit at Houlton Regional Hospital, who took such gentle, loving care of Harold and his family.
A celebration of Harold's life will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at Bowers Funeral Home, 54 Sherman St., Island Falls. In lieu of flowers, donations in Harold's memory may be made to the Basketball Hall of Fame, 4 Union Plaza, Suite 11, Bangor, ME 04401. For an online memory book and to leave condolences, please visit
www.bowersfuneral.com.
Bangor Daily News
By Ernie Clark BDN Staff
Posted Nov. 18, 2011
This friendship began in 1996 with a tap on the shoulder.
"Hi," said the short, bespectacled man to the reporter sitting along press row during tournament week at the Bangor Auditorium. "I'm Harold Hoar."
I didn't know quite what to make of Harold at that moment, but what I learned over the ensuing 15 years is that he represented much of what is good about life in northern and eastern Maine, particularly the willingness to care for each other.
And his death last Sunday at age 64 leaves a void not only with family and friends but throughout Maine's high school basketball world.
The Island Falls native had a mild developmental disability but dealt with that challenge proudly through a love of people and sports ? especially high school basketball and his annual pilgrimage to the Eastern Maine tournament in Bangor for the last 31 years.
"Harold was down to earth," said Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook athletic administrator and longtime baseball coach Murray Putnam, who knew Hoar for more than four decades. "He was flat-out honest and just the sweetest human being there is. And the best thing is that the last time I saw him he was the same as when I first met him. He never changed."
Hoar greeted opposing basketball teams at Southern Aroostook on game nights with a heart-warming smile, a handshake and words of good luck. And the guests invariably responded with beaming smiles of their own ? even though they knew he would be rooting for the other team.
"He was incredibly kind," said Putnam. "He'd always be there when the visitors' bus arrived. He took it upon himself to be a good-will ambassador."
And he was a fan not only of the people involved, but the game itself.
"He was smart enough to know who he was, and in many ways he was a lot sharper than he appeared," said Lynwood McHatten of Ashland, a basketball official for the past 37 years. "He could tell you who won the 1981 Eastern Maine championship, or he could pull names out of thin air of players who made the key shots in big games."
Hoar had a special bond with Maine basketball commissioner Peter Webb, a fellow southern Aroostook County native who shared with Harold a devotion to that part of Maine and the kids who grew up playing basketball there.
"Harold was Harold, you got what he had to give and that was that he genuinely liked you," said Webb. "He wanted you to know that and all he wanted in return was for you to like him. At times it takes a special person to help us realize that we need to stretch our attention far beyond simply ourselves."
Hoar had an affinity for all basketball officials, welcoming those wearing the whistles at virtually every game he attended. Come tournament time, he'd let the officials know when the teams arrived on court before each game and later retrieved their warm-up jackets.
And the officials looked out for Harold.
Sometimes it was a donation to help defray his tourney week expenses or a ride home from a Southern Aroostook game. Sometimes it was more official, like his being named an honorary member of the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials or his annual presentation at the Northern Maine board's annual banquet.
"Harold was always part of the agenda," said McHatten. "He'd get up and let us know what kind of season we'd had, and he'd always remember some game where he thought someone had missed a couple of traveling calls and mention the officials by name. We were all fair game, but Harold was never hurtful."
A celebration of Harold's life will be held Saturday at Bowers Funeral Home in Island Falls. In lieu of flowers donations may be made in his memory to the fledgling Maine Basketball Hall of Fame ? 4 Union Plaza, Suite 11, Bangor 04401 ? that is slated to be housed in the new Bangor arena currently under construction.
A tribute brick or a plaque bearing Harold Hoar's name would be a fitting addition to the new building. For as much as he gained from being part of the tournament scene for so many years at the current Bangor Auditorium, what others have gained from getting to know him there is even more substantial.
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The H600 Project Genealogy DB
1947 - 2011 (64 years)