Memories of Chief John Hawk

John Hawk died on Monday. He was only 51.

He was promoted to glory, but he leaves grieving children and family and many friends. I was one of them, and I am very sad to hear of his passing. Don't get me wrong -- he was a believer and he knew where he was going. He is with the Lord. But the world is a little bit poorer without John Hawk in it. He was a good man.

He was the police chief of Roy, Washington, and had been for a number of years. He was a dedicated lawman, someone you could depend upon. He always tried to do the right thing, and he always had a heart for people. He was a policeman who cared deeply for his fellow men and women. His Christian training guided him in how he carried out his job.

I knew John as the Police Chief in Kake, Alaska. With the substance abuse problems of many of our residents in Kake, his job was a tough one. But he tried to do his best. We had a few adventures together during that time. There were times when he would arrest folks for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct, and, later, after they had sobered up a bit, I would go up to the village jail and see John and pray with the person in the cell. He always hoped the alcoholic could kick their habit, and sometimes they did. No doubt,it was a struggle to be the police chief a little village with pronounced substance addiction problems. But John was always seeking ways to help, and during his time in Kake some wonderful things were begun by the people.

When we formed the Healing Heart Council in Kake, a group of concerned citizens to promote healthy living and good choices in the village, John was there, helping to work for early warnings of problems and prevention of then before they festered into something worse. When Magistrate Mike Jackson and a group of us began Circle Peacemaking as a way of alternative dispute resolution, John gave it his blessing and did his best to support it. He wanted what was best for the people.

John was adopted into the great Tlingit nation, given a name that had belonged to legendary Tlingit Christian leader Daniel Paul. John cherished his adoption and his connection to the Native Alaskan people of Kake. He moved away for a better career opportunity in Roy, Washington, but I am sure that a part of his heart always stayed in Kake.

One night I will always remember was a night in the late nineties when a particularly violent storm hit the Alexander Archipelago on the Inside Passage of Alaska. It was one that boasted winds up to 136 miles per hour, sheering trees off at their trunks and tearing roofs off houses, yet it got no airplay in the lower 48, as was par for the course.

Still, this monstrous storm hit Kake with much sound and shock and fury, and the little cabin manse we were living in shook so much we thought it might be blown off its foundation. Siding was torn from the walls of the Kake Memorial church where I was the pastor. The wind was furious, and my wife and I, with two childrn under five, prayed to take away our fear.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, in the hundred mile and hour winds. We opened in and shards of rain blew inside, seeming to cut our faces. There was John, the police chief, all wet in his rain gear. Some roofs had been ripped off people's homes, and he was opening the village gymnasium as a shelter. Since I was the Red Cross contact, I had some cots and blankets in the basement of the church. He wanted us to load them in his SUV so he could take them down to the gymnasium.

So we stumbled out into the wind. I weighed 290 and John was somewhere closer to 200, but both of us were big men, over six feet and pretty strong. Yet the wind was so hard to walk in, we had to bow down. Then, when I was taking a cot in my hands out of the church basement, a big gust actually picked me off the ground, like a kite, and carried me several feet in the air toward the raging ocean thirty yards away.

After that we both crawled with the cost to his SUV. My wife came out to help and she crawled, too. Later, as I carried blankets down in our van, the van actually moved across the road from the force of a titanic wind gust. What a night it was. But through it all John was the faithful policeman, putting his life on the line to serve the people. That was the kind of guy he was.

And he had great compassion for the ones beset by addictions to alcohol and drugs, even as he fought the scourge that addiction puts on our society. He always had a heart for kids. I will never forget how he reached out to kids at Halloween. I can remember a time, early in our time in Kake, when John and kathy had a great time giving out candy to all the village kids and youth at the police station. And he did many other things to reach out to the kids. Every year, John had remarkable programs for the young people in high school to realize how important life was and how we need to be careful with the lives and the friends God has given us.

Oh, John was not perfect, (as none of us are!), but he was a good man. And he will be missed. There are other stories I could tell -- of his starring in a church play we did called "The Death of a Church," (it was his idea), and of his breaking his leg while enforcing the law in a fight with an evil doer, and of other times of putting his life on the line for the good of the people of the village.

John had an innate sense of compassion and that made a world of difference. Earlier in his life he had served as an officer in the Salvation Army, and he knew his Bible, and we had some good discussions. But the fact that he cared about people in a deep way is what I will remember most about John Hawk.

I pray for his dear children and family. I pray for the many people who will remember him fondly. On this day I remember John Hawk with a tear in my eye and thankfulness in my heart. He was a blessing to us, and we will never forget him.