In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory...

Edward Hagaman
1923 - 2010

Ed Hagaman was a wonderful member of our Center. He was passionate and stubborn...played a great game of cards, but most of all he was passionate about his baby. His prize-winning 4-cylinder 1932 Plymouth Phaeton PB!

When Ed Hagaman, now 86 years old, was discharged from the United States Navy after the end of World War II, he established himself in the automotive service and repai business. He began working for GM, Ford, and independent enterprises for a few years before finally landing his own service station, a small Shell garage (tin roof, single outside lift) on the main east-west route through idyllic rural Hackettstown, New Jersey. Like a lot of guys whose business is cars, he soon got into motorsports, racing stock cars at tracks in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

One cold night in Middletown, New York, his car ended up in a pond in the middle of the oval. Track operators wouldn’t let him leave the property until he and his partner got it out of the water and took it home. That was a turning point, Hagaman recalls, because -- soaking wet and shivering after wadding into the pond to get a towline on the car -- he decided then and there he was out of the sport. Hagaman said, “I told my partner when we get back to Hackettstown, I’m going to park this car in your yard, and you can have it!” That left garage-operator Hagaman with lots of creative energy to burn and he developed a lifelong fascination with classic cars. Ed and his wife, Joan, have lost count of all the collector cars they have owned, restored, sold, or given to their four children. The prize-winning 4-cylinder 1932 Plymouth Phaeton PB in the accompanying images remains their all-time favorite, and Mrs. Hagaman told me a rendering of the Phaeton is going on their memorial stone.

TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL STORY... please go to http://www.allpar.com/cotm/2009/april-1932.html

We know Ed will be sorely missed not only in our surrounding community, but throughout the state because of his involvement. He was a jovial old soul and we will miss him dearly.
We are extremely grateful to have known Ed and his family. Our hearts will always remember him and we are honored to have had a place in his life. We are deeply grateful to his wife, Joan, for her request to those that loved Ed to send donations to Selah Care Center in lieu of flowers. We would like to acknowledge the following with many thanks...

Mr. & Mrs. William Pritchett
Mr. & Mrs. Ken Schofield
Mr. & Mrs. A.J. Monacelli
Mr. & Mrs. William Boer
Stone Barn, Inc.
Mr. & Mrs. Bryan Burke