Under the direction of Richard Hahn, the Forest Lake Area High School marching band traveled the world and performed at the Tournament of Roses, the Cotton Bowl and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
The marching band presented 15 half-time shows for professional football teams during Hahn’s tenure: seven in Winnipeg, six Vikings games and two Green Bay games. The band also performed at Game 1 of the 1987 World Series, and made parade appearances at Lions International Convention parades in Miami and New Orleans and made multiple visits to Calgary, Washington, D.C., and Traverse City, Mich. The symphonic band, under Hahn’s leadership, took multiple trips to Europe.
Hahn, the Forest Lake Area High School band director from 1980 to 2009, was killed in a car crash south of Cologne, Minn., late Friday morning. His wife, Jeanette, who was gravely injured in the crash, died Saturday at the Hennepin County Medical Center after undergoing surgery. Both were 75.
The crash occurred around 11:50 a.m. at the intersection of Carver County Highway 53 and Carver County Highway 50 in Benton Township, according to Carver County Sheriff Jason Kamerud.
Richard Hahn, driving a 2020 Toyota Corolla, was traveling west on Highway 50 when he stopped at the stop sign at the intersection of Highway 53; there is no stop sign for north/south traffic on Highway 53, Kamerud said.
Richard Hahn had stopped at the stop sign and began to enter the intersection, stopped again, and attempted to cross the intersection when he was struck in the driver’s side by a northbound dump truck, Kamerud said. Hahn was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the dump truck, a 32-year-old man from Arlington, Minn., was not injured in the crash, Kamerud said. The Minnesota State Patrol is handling the investigation.
‘Legendary’ band director
Richard Hahn, right, was director of the Forest Lake Area High School band from 1980 to 2009. (Courtesy of Maurya Laqua)
Richard Hahn was a “legendary” band director, said Superintendent Steven Massey, who was principal of the high school when Hahn retired.
“You really have to use the word ‘legendary’ when you describe him,” Massey said. “He was so passionate about the music and the creation of music that he just drew the kids in. … I don’t want to understate the level that he was able to get these kids to perform. He set high expectations and was demanding, but that resonated with the kids. It was not easy work, yet they loved it. That’s the paradox, right?”
Hahn was an educator, mentor and friend to thousands of students through the years, said Jake Matheson, a former student who is now a band director at Forest Lake Area Middle School.
“If you cared about music, he, hands down, would do anything to help you or push you,” said Matheson, who took private tuba lessons from Hahn. “He kept giving me new things to work on. It was, like, ‘Here, figure this out. Figure this out.’ He would keep pushing me, you know, beyond the limits of where a normal sixth or seventh grader would be playing. It was inspirational to know that I could do hard things.”
Wife directed choir
Jeanette Hahn served for years as the assistant choir director at St. Francis High School and St. Francis Middle School from 1980 to 2009. “The quality of the choral music coming out of that town was unbelievable,” said Laurie Hahn Ganser, the couple’s daughter. “I remember being at one of my mom’s concerts, and my dad saying, ‘Do you hear those eighth-graders? They are singing four-part harmony.’ He was, like, ‘That doesn’t just happen. That’s your mom.’”
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Said Markus Hahn: “Her choirs were amazing. People were envious of the teaching that she could do with middle-schoolers, especially middle-school boys, and getting them across the break or their voice change, which is a very big deal. She knew a lot about how to do that. What she could do with middle-school choirs was tremendous.”
Jeanette Hahn, a piano player and singer, also taught piano lessons and played piano for the Praise Team at Faith Lutheran Church in Forest Lake.
“Music was so at their core and brought them so much joy and love,” Ganser said. “There was always music playing at the house. Classical or oldies, not pop. We don’t do pop.”
Grew up in North Dakota
Richard Hahn grew up in Minot, N.D.; Jeanette Laqua grew up in Williston, N.D.
“The first time my mom saw my father was when they were in high school,” said Markus Hahn, the couple’s son. “They were at a band festival in Minot, and my father was the leader of a brass ensemble, and he leaned out and conducted with his hand. And my mom thought, ‘What a pompous $@*&.’ My Dad always said, ‘That’s how they told me to do it!’ ”
The two met in marching band their freshman year at Minot State Teachers College; Richard Hahn was a drum major and Jeanette Laqua played French horn. “My mother joked that before their first date, she was president of the ‘We Hate Richard Hahn Club,’ which consisted of two members – my mom and another person,” Ganser said. “For whatever reason, she agreed to go on a date with him. On their first date, my dad told the story about his dad who was from a farm in Iowa, and that when piglets were born on the farm, you would shake them a little bit to get their hearts going. She said, ‘I knew then that I would marry this man.’ ”
The couple transferred to St. Cloud State University after three years at Minot and later both earned master’s degrees in music education at the University of Minnesota.
They married in 1972 at Gloria Dei Lutheran in Williston and had two children.
Richard and Jeanette Hahn worked as band and choir directors, respectively, in Henning and Vining, Minn., Minot and Donnybrook, N.D., and finally in Forest Lake and St. Francis, “teaching for a combined 74 years,” Ganser said.
After they retired in 2009, they became volunteer ushers for the Minnesota Orchestra.
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Richard Hahn’s passion was contagious, said Markus Hahn, who is band director at Robbinsdale-Cooper High School in New Hope. “When you have passion and when you study your craft to the point that what you’re telling your students helps them succeed, you can create buy-in very quickly. When the kids succeed, they feel good about themselves, that creates buy-in, and when students buy in, you can do a lot of good things.”
In addition to their children, the Hahns are survived by three grandchildren.
A celebration of the Hahns’ lives will be held at 11 a.m. Oct. 26 at Faith Lutheran Church in Forest Lake; a visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Oct. 25 at Mattson Funeral Home in Forest Lake.
The family requests that attendees wear maroon and gold in honor of the University of Minnesota. Donations to the “Richard and Jeanette Hahn Memorial Scholarship Fund” for students pursuing music degrees at the University of Minnesota are preferred in lieu of flowers.
