Ney contractor known for loyalty to customers
11/2/2000NEY, O. - Theodore W. Hanna, the retired co-owner of Hanna Construction Co. and a longtime roofer and house framer in the area, died Sunday in his home in Defiance County's Washington Township. He was 69.
Mr. Hanna died of cancer, his wife, Nancy, said. He was in declining health for about a year.
He graduated in 1949 from the former Ney High School, where he received athletic letters for baseball and basketball, his wife said.
Mr. Hanna went right to work for a Bryan contractor, where he learned all aspects of the construction business. He stayed there until the Bryan firm closed.
Mr. Hanna and his son Gerald founded Hanna Construction in 1982.
The elder Mr. Hanna retired in 1995, leaving management to his son. Occasionally, however, he came forward or was called upon to provide advice on business and building techniques.
“He enjoyed his work. He did everything,” Mrs. Hanna said. “I was impressed with his honesty and loyalty to his employer and later to his customers, after he and Gerald started their business.”
Mr. Hanna built the family's Washington Township home, his son Aaron said.
He added that his father “did a lot of finishing work in houses around Ney, but that was a little tedious for him because what he really liked was framing and roofing houses. If he said he would do something for a dollar figure, he kept his word.”
Mr. Hanna liked to fish the Maumee River and at a lake in Hillsdale County, Michigan. He recently traveled to the Florida Keys with his son, Aaron, where he tried his luck at saltwater fishing, all the while undergoing chemotherapy to fight his cancer.
Surviving are his wife of 49 years, Nancy; sons, Aaron and Gerald; mother, Willa; seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Memorial services will be at 11 a.m. today in the Ney Church of God. The Snyder-Wesche Funeral Home, Napoleon, is handling arrangements.
The family requests tributes to Hospice the Caring Way of Defiance County or to a charity of the donor's choice.