Marsdon Hauge found more than a challenging job when he went to work for Pacific Garden Mission, 646 S. State St., in 1959. He found a wife with similar dedication to service. The two began a marriage that lasted 36 years until it ended April 4 with Hauge’s death at Northwestern Memorial Hospital of acute coronary syndrome. A memorial service was held April 23 at the Moody Church, 1609 N. LaSalle St. Mr. Hauge was 93.
“Marty’s job was engineer and supervision of maintenance,” said Mrs. Elaine Chobanoff Hauge, his widow. “And my job was director of the women and children’s division. We felt we were in a ministry. Pacific Garden Mission is a large facility with four buildings, and serves hundreds of people a night. We both had a deep commitment to our responsibilities.”
The couple became acquainted through their work and Mr. Hauge then began a courtship that lasted eight years before they married. Mrs. Hauge, who is a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute and was its “Alumnus of the Year” in 2000, continued to work at Pacific Garden for 10 years after Mr. Hauge retired. “He maintained friendships at the Mission by driving me to work and picking me up every day,” she said. “In his spare time he pursued his hobby of heavy reading, especially in history, until macular degeneration made that impossible. Then Marty took up talking books.”
Mr. Hauge was born in Greenwich, CT, to parents who had emigrated from Denmark. He often spoke of his mother, Adela Kath Hauge, whose volunteer service to arrivals to New England from her native land led to her being knighted by the King of Denmark. During World War II, Mr. Hauge’s skills as a tool and dye maker kept him on the home front where he worked for a company that made a unique type of scope essential to the speedy assembly of guns.
Besides his wife, Mr. Hauge is survived by a family from an earlier marriage, including his son Marsdon A. Hauge of Fairfield, CT, two grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. |
