John Stephen Hawkes, 76

On the morning of July 18, 2024, during a predawn summer rain, John Stephen Hawkes of Naples, Idaho, passed away peacefully in his sleep after complications from cancer. He was 76 years old. 

On Dec. 8, 1947, in Port Chester, N.Y., Steve was born the youngest of three Hawkes children. The family settled in the Seattle area circa 1950. Following the untimely death of his beloved older brother, the remaining family embarked on a trip around Central America when Steve was 14. It was a remarkable trip that left lasting impressions.

During high school at Bellevue High, Steve was a good student and a football athlete. After high school, Steve attended WSU where he joined the Acacia Fraternity and earned a B.A. in English. Having finished school, Steve joined the Peace Corps in 1972 and headed to Paraguay. He became fluent in the Spanish dialect of Paraguayans and for years to come, would speak the language to his family and friends simply for the sake of its beauty. Steve was asked to return as a Peace Corps volunteer in the year 2000, this time sending him to Honduras.

Back in the States in 1975, Steve attained a second degree in civil engineering and ultimately a job with the USFS. He started out fighting forest fires in the Olympic National Forest and remained involved in fire suppression throughout his tenure. 

In 1979, he met Jean Dagman — they married with certainty on April 19, 1980, in Spokane. Their honeymoon was a day trip to Hope, Idaho, and it wasn’t a year before Steve was granted a position in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, for the USFS. For the next 35 years, he helped to manage 900 miles of federal roads and bridges across our northern counties.

The 1980s and 1990s were spent building his family and pursuing his hobbies in music and theater. 

Steve was a brilliant musician. Able to play a piano tune by ear and command virtually any instrument he held in his hands, Jean always said he would be a great one-man band. His greatest love was the piano, and he built a fun and successful side business, tuning and repairing pianos all over the region out of his blue Volkswagon Bug.

He was a talented thespian — the Boundary County Community Theater was vibrant in those days and Steve was very involved, holding important roles such as in "Helen Keller," "The Glass Menagerie" and most prominently "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff?" His avid interest in science, daily New York Times crossword puzzles and trivia, mixed with his adoration for wordsmithing lent him an admirable quirk of teasing the English language, challenging rules and insisting on grammar. You could have asked him on any given day to recite poems from the far reaches of his memory, including his favorite, "The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe. 

Steve is preceded in death by his parents, Kendrick Charles and Yvonne Peirce; and his brother, Casey. He is survived by his wife, Jean; and their children, Maia and Cameron; and many extended family members.

A private family service will be held at a later date.