Shirley Hogan
“Each day is an adventure. I talk to God all the time and say, ‘thank you’ for taking me wherever you are taking me today!”
That’s Shirley Hogan; she exudes joy and looks at the bright side of nearly everything in life. “I know that bad days do happen,” she says, “but I always look for something good to come out of everything, every day”.
Shirley and her husband Dick knew each other as kids growing up. Their families were church friends, and they attended the same high school, with Dick graduating 3 years before Shirley. They reconnected after college when they commuted together on the bus from New Jersey to New York City for their post-college jobs. Their friendship blossomed into romance, and eventually Dick proposed to Shirley in his parent’s living room. They got married in a small ceremony in their family church and then flew off the following day for a magical honeymoon in Bermuda.
The beautiful white sand beaches and little pink cottages of Bermuda may have been the beginning Dick and Shirley’s wanderlust! Dick spent his career working with Pillsbury and traveled internationally often. Shirley was busy raising their four children, but she remembers one trip to London to meet up with Dick and some of his colleagues. They were craving corn on the cob, so Shirley flew to Heathrow with a bag filled with ears of corn. “PanAm let us do that back then!” she laughs.
After moving to Minnesota in 1965, Dick and Shirley joined Wayzata Community Church and raised their family in Deephaven. They made life-long friends in their Koinonia group (what we used to call community groups) and they traveled together often as couples. Shirley’s favorite trip was a “magical and peaceful” African safari with Dick. One of their favorite traveling traditions involved taking each of their grandchildren on a memorable trip when they turned eleven or twelve. They went white water rafting on the Colorado River, they took a Grand Canyon helicopter adventure, and they went to Costa Rica, Banff/Lake Louise, Denmark, and France. There’s one more trip in the works for Shirley’s grandchild, Gordon. “The Galapagos would be fun because Gordy loves critters, but he’s thinking he’d like to go to Iceland!” Shirley also went on the WCC Israel trip with Lindy Purdy in 2015.
In the 57 years she has been at WCC, Shirley has served as a Deacon, and she still participates in Thimble Bees and is a Rummage volunteer. She is friends with all generations of people at church and fancies herself somewhat of an event planner. She gets groups of friends together to go to concerts at Orchestra Hall— parking at Ridgedale and taking the bus right to Peavey Plaza— and stays very active at Deephaven Woods, where she serves as an ambassador to welcome new residents. Shirley has also been in the cast of many Good Works Community Theater shows— including Honk, Princess & The Pea, Into the Woods, the Wizard of Oz, and Big Fish— where she has widened her ever-growing circle of church friends.
Shirley has never liked sitting still for very long. She grew up taking tap, ballet, and ballroom dance lessons. She regularly plays Ping Pong, attends exercise classes with friends at Deephaven Woods, and swims at Robinson’s Bay in Lake Minnetonka several times a week, bringing her chair and noodle with her to paddle around the bay for an hour or so, greeting the same familiar faces. “I’ve been coming to this beach with my chair for fifty years,” she says, “so they know me!”
Shirley believes that the best thing about Wayzata Community Church is its inclusivity. “It’s so important to be inclusive,” she says. “I’m so proud of our church for being so accepting and open.” She loves the Parables service and the families she has met through Parables, and she attends the 10:30 traditional service as well. “I love the beautiful music, and Stephen Self is a gift to WCC!”
On November 27th, Shirley will celebrate her 90th birthday out East with her big, close-knit family, and she and her adult kids will travel to Ireland together next year. Her sister, Sandra Larson, describes her as a woman who “delights in everything,” and Shirley agrees. “I have lived a joy-filled life. I have no complaints!”
We’re grateful to Shirley for sharing her joy, fun sense of humor, and delightful life stories with all of us. She is a treasure!
Artist Jean Haefele