His heart and home always in Aurora
It wasn’t unusual for Steve Hogan to drop everything, find a cheap airline fare and fly halfway around the world, just for the sheer experience — and the frequent flier miles. He touched down in 40 countries on six continents.
But his heart and home never left Aurora, the growing suburb where he settled shortly after college and helped nurture into a diverse and dynamic city through a career in public service. When he died Sunday at age 69, shortly after a cancer diagnosis, he was serving his second term as mayor after six terms on the city council.
“My father’s vision for the region is what pushed everything he did throughout my entire life,” said his son, Timothy Hogan, 42. “Throughout that whole time, he lived in Aurora and worked to help Aurora grow and become the great city it is now.”
Born in Lincoln, Neb., and reared in Hastings, Hogan showed strong leadership
qualities even as a young student. He became an Eagle Scout and, as a star athlete at his high school, for a while held the record for the most points scored in a single basketball game. His pride in his hoop abilities never really diminished.
“When he met with President Obama several times,” his son recalled, “his remarks to me were that he thought he could probably take him, one-on-one, in basketball.”
In 1966, Hogan enrolled at the University of Denver, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. Aside from nine months when he returned to Nebraska for a year of law school in 1970, Hogan remained in Colorado, settling in Aurora in 1973.
There, he launched his political career in 1975 with a successful campaign for state representative.
Among the many civic achievements in which Hogan had a hand, he expressed particular pride in his role as executive director of the E-470 Public Highway Authority from 1991-98 and the Northwest Parkway Public Highway Authority from 1998-2007. His work enabled financing and construction of the toll roads at a time when highway construction in the state had waned.
“He really believed you could only build great things through cooperation,” Timothy Hogan said. “He believed the more you could connect with different people who had similar interests, the greater things you could accomplish.”
In a document he wrote years before his death, Hogan took note of projects large and small: his city policy for replacing all trees lost to development, making Aurora mayor a full-time position and his unsuccessful campaign to create a city and county of Aurora.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock recalls that he and Hogan, who was a Republican for the last half of his political career, often found themselves on the same side of arguments despite their party differences. And that, Hancock adds, is why Hogan’s civic legacy includes projects with regional implications — particularly discussions pertaining to development in and around Denver International Airport.
“That could not have been done without Steve Hogan,” Hancock said. “He was always the pragmatist, always keeping us focused on the fundamental issues. He understood the importance of operating as a region, not just cities. For three years, he always found a way to bring us back to the middle ground. We got through it because of pragmatic people like Steve saying we needed to remember what we were in the room to do.
“But he was also the eternal optimist, just a guy who was very candid and real,” Hancock added. “I found him to be one of the more respectful and likable people I’ve met.”
They hit it off immediately, launching a friendship that they would periodically renew once or twice a year over scotch — Hogan preferred Johnny Walker Black — at a hotel bar near the cities’ border. Hogan also appreciated his wine, especially Whitehall Lane Cabernet Sauvignon, and passed that interest on to his family.
“Family dinners were really important to him,” Timothy Hogan said, noting that blended family over three marriages made for scheduling challenges. “Sometimes we couldn’t always celebrate on a particular day, but he’d make sure each month he set aside one night where we could all get together as a family and sit around the dinner table, and have a new wine he was introducing.”
Steve Bobrick, who met Hogan when the two served on the Aurora city council in the 1980s, credits him for a number of accomplishments but also notes that his style melded perfectly with substance to achieve those goals.
“Temperment is the thing that comes to mind,” Bobrick said. “We were in volatile situations and not once did this man lose his temper or speak out unkindly. There were several opportunities to do so. It was politics.”
Hogan’s even-keeled demeanor helped him navigate often thorny issues with grace, Bobrick added.
“He never once said a negative thing about a council member,” he said. “He always got to the issues to try and accomplish the goals. He never said a harsh word about any- body. That’s extraordinary. Given how many years I knew him, he behaved so professionally, so much like a statesman. He’d never scream and rant and rave. He always held his tongue and thought about things before he spoke.”
Hogan’s leadership in the wake of the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, which shattered the city only months after his election as mayor, drew widespread respect and appreciation.
“Valiantly, heroically, he was a leader,” Hancock said. “He held that community together for the good of all of us who were watching and engaged. People never understand the pressure he was under, the way he led city and state through that situation.” Politics was always his passion. Hogan ran for Congress twice, both times as a Democrat. In 1982, he lost to Republican Jack Swigert, the Apollo 13 astronaut — although Swigert died before he could take office. In a special election, he faced off against Republican Dan Schaefer, and lost again.
But his politics had begun to shift, and it was discussions with Schaefer before a later election that proved key in Hogan’s decision to switch parties. After deciding that his philosophy lined up more with Republicans, he supported Schaefer as a Democrat and then switched parties after Schaefer’s re-election.
“He served about half his political career as a Democrat and the other half as a Republican,” Timothy Hogan said. “But he was able to reach across the aisle to solve problems. Gov. (John) Hickenlooper said recently that he was a person who put people and policy above party. And that was really true.”
In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Becky; his brother Mike, and his wife, Marcia, and their children; a daughter Elizabeth Hogan; stepchildren Megan Johnson, Anna Artrup and Stacie Loucks; and grandchildren Tyson Johnson, Liam Henrikus, Vivian Hogan, Richie and Petra Pachner, and Adeline Krueger.
Services have been scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Heritage Christian Center, 14401 E Exposition Ave., in Aurora