Harry Allan Hokanson

One evening in the early 1980s, Harry Hokanson arrived home in Miami with a sample of two light strips and laid them down parallel to one another on the living room floor. He turned out the living room's lights and — as he was often apt to do — asked his wife and daughter who was home from college to stand in as surrogate passengers.

At the time, the airlines were adding the new technology of interior lights to illuminate floor aisles. As a metallurgical engineer for Eastern Airlines, Harry was tasked with designing plans for aircraft that needed repairs. Or, in this case, evaluating potential new uses, so he asked the women in his family to determine if high heels might puncture the lights.

Always matter-of-fact, Harry would later downplay his role in the airline industry, but the fact that he continued to work part time in the industry on a contract basis until the age of 85 speaks for itself.

Harry, 90, died on October 17, 2025, at home in Coconut Grove, Florida.

Born on May 28, 1935 in Tacoma, Washington, to Harry and Imogene (Spence) Hokanson, Harry spent his formative years in Tacoma, with a brief interlude in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Rye, New York, for his father's job. It was in Rye that Harry became the man of the family at age 11 after his father died suddenly of a heart attack. His mother, equally as stoic and matter-of-fact as her only son, moved the family back to Tacoma and took a job as a Spanish teacher to support her three children.

Harry graduated from Stadium High School and attended Reed College for a year before transferring to the Colorado School of Mines, where he graduated with a degree in Metallurgical Engineering in 1958 and promptly married his high school sweetheart, Virginia (Ginni) Ruth Hampton, whom he had known most of his life.

Like his father, he moved his new wife across the country to Connecticut, where he took his first job at Hamilton Standard (now PTR). Assigned to the company's new electron beam welding division, Harry helped to pioneer technology that had just arrived in the U.S. a few years prior.

Harry and Ginni had two children, Jennifer and Maryann. In 1965, Harry moved his young family to Miami, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He repaired damaged engines for Aerodex and later spent 15 years at the now-defunct Eastern Air Lines, rising to become chief of propulsion engineering and later vice president of engineering. He also served as a Federal Aviation Administration designated engineering representative. He subsequently joined and then retired from Propulsion Technologies Manufacturing International as a partner. Harry continued to serve as a mentor and consultant in the airline industry for decades longer.

The move to Miami gave Harry a chance to revisit sailboating, which he had first been introduced to at a summer camp as a teenager in Tacoma. Throughout his life, he also enjoyed traveling, cycling, birdwatching, and reading. He and Ginni especially loved to bike through the Everglades and travel to Alaska, Maine, Tacoma, and Norway. Later in life he spent many summers in Cape Cod with his special friend, Barbara.

Harry was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather, and was intentional in spending time with his children and three grandchildren throughout their lives, even across the miles. He was known for sending postcards to his grandchildren of the many places his travels took him.

The Hokanson family went through a series of losses in a short time span in the early 2000s; Jennifer died in 2001 and Ginni died just a few years later in 2004. But never satisfied unless he put his all into life, Harry made the most of the next two decades and created a new chapter, just as rich as the years before.

Until his last year, Harry was mentally sharp. Later in life he faced several challenging health issues and was given a five year life expectancy, which he characteristically outlived. Fitting to his precise nature, he died at 3 p.m. on the dot, and in a month that lands right in between the months of his wife and daughter's deaths. When the lights turned out a final time once and for all, he was comfortable at home, overlooking Biscayne Bay, and surrounded by several of his loved ones.

In a life well-lived, he leaves a legacy of love for his family, who will carry on his memory by continuing to live their lives to the fullest.

Harry is survived by his daughter Maryann Mitzel (Mike); son-in-law Marshall Essig; sisters Joan Halvorsen and Barbara Plenefisch; grandchildren Claire, Andrew, and Jack; partner, Barbara Kline; many nieces and nephews; and friends and former colleagues. He is preceded in death by his parents; wife, Virginia; daughter Jennifer, and best friends Ron and Elaine Nuehring.

The family is deeply appreciative of the doctors, nurses, and caregivers from ValueCare, The Palace at Home, and AccentCare Hospice who supported Harry in his final years, including Dr. Rigoberto Gonzalez and Dr. John Mekras.

A private memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations to Rails to Trails Conservancy (https://secure.railstotrails.org/site/Donation2?df_id=14374&mfc_pref=T&14374.donation=form1) in Harry's memory are encouraged.

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