John Wesley Hauer was born on Sept. 27, 1935 in Danville, KY, the only child of Helen Higgins Hauer and Charles Eugene Hauer. He died Nov. 10, 2024 at the age of 89 in the Canyonlands Care Center following a stroke.
The hallmarks of John’s life include a distinguished career as the president of National College in Rapid City, SD, his prowess as an outdoorsman, hunter, horseman and especially mule-man. He was a passionate supporter of The Nature Conservancy with which he helped to preserve thousands of acres of land in South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
John spent the first decade of his life in Somerset, KY, under the tender care of his parents and grandparents. When he was ten years old he and his parents moved to Indianapolis where he attended schools and college. He graduated from Butler University where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, where he made lifelong friends and professional partners.
John served in the United States Air Force, after which he attended graduate school at Arizona State University in Tucson where he met Nancy Ann Buckingham. John and Nancy married and moved to her hometown of Rapid City where John began working at National College. As its president, he helped to grow the college by magnitudes while at the same time raising a young family and running a cattle operation on his ranch in the Black Hills.
John was a skilled and compassionate hunter who believed in a fair chase. He was especially passionate about wild turkeys, and helped to start the Turkey Track Club which is still in operation, guiding hunters from around the world in the Black Hills of South Dakota every spring. Along with his business ventures he was dedicated to hunting, fishing and wildlife conservation. He and his son Bo spent countless adventures together from Africa to Alaska. Neither could have asked for a better hunting buddy.
John was so dedicated to professional hunting principles that he helped to start the TIP (Turn in Poachers) program in South Dakota. He also raised funds to develop a fishing pond for the Boys Club of South Dakota, and donated land for a riding arena for the Girls Club. Among his many honors, he was named South Dakota Tree Farmer of the Year for thinning the jack pine stands that grew there in abundance. He loved, enjoyed and absorbed every bit of the great outdoors that he could, and he was knowledgeable about nearly every species of animals you could ask him about.
John was an avid reader and a stickler for perfection in all things written or said. He would smirk when someone “who should know better” used improper grammar. Similarly, he would edit every published thing he read, always holding a pen to underline any errors. Some newspapers even received anonymous clips in the mail from the “Grammar Phantom” who had red-lined the mistakes and sent them to the editors.
When John and Nancy retired from the college business in 1989, they went searching for a place to spend their retirement. They stumbled across Moab when their vehicle, towing a horse trailer, broke down just outside of town. While the rig was being repaired, they took a river trip, toured the region, fell in love with the Colorado Plateau and bought a ranch. The private land that fronts the Colorado River near Fisher Towers remains undeveloped due to John’s desire to place it in a conservation easement and keep it natural.
John and Nancy were very active in the Moab community, involved in local boards and in real estate. Nancy died in 2002 after a struggle with lung cancer. He later joined hands with Sena Taylor Flanders, who brought two step-children to their marriage. They were active with raising the children and in caring for a mule and horse operation in Professor Valley. John was well known throughout the country as a mule aficionado. He brokered mules and helped people find the ideal long-eared equine for their needs. He published a book entitled, “The Natural Superiority of Mules,” which saw three different editions and multiple reprints, and has been widely sold at the Grand Canyon where the trusty steeds still take wide-eyed visitors into the depths of one of the wonders of our world.
John and Sena started a trail-ride business in 2010, guiding thousands of visitors each year along the river and Onion Creek. They enjoyed sharing “John Wayne country” with visitors, and the spectacular views of Castle Rock and Fisher Towers which John so dearly loved. He rarely missed a day hiking on the desert or riding his mules. He always said he was a lucky man, and he indeed appreciated what the universe offered to him with nary a negative word or thought, only intense gratitude. He was a pleasant, proper and humorous gentleman.
John loved dogs. He rarely traveled, hiked or rode his mules without his canine companions, and to his death could name nearly every one of the scores of dogs he owned throughout his life. The story of Blender the Colorado River Dog is still told and sold in books around Moab. John took his last mule ride just a year ago, at the age of 88.
Special thanks go to the Canyonlands Care Center which gave him safe and loving care over the past several months as his dementia worsened, and to his longtime physician, Dr. Ken Williams.
John is survived by his wife Sena Taylor Hauer of Moab, his children Bo (wife Erika) Hauer of Piedmont, SD, and Kyla Hauer of Grand Junction, CO; stepchildren Taylor and Adam Flanders, and grandchildren James Hauer, Michaela Harwood (Wyatt), John Taylor and Elijah Heinemann.
No services are planned at this time. His body has been cremated and his family will scatter his ashes on his beloved ranch on the banks of the Colorado River, with its heavenly views of Fisher Towers and Castle Rock.
John wrote a short treatise in 1999 on his transition from work life to leisure called “Life After Business: Lessons in Retirement.” He didn’t want people to lose their ambitions after leaving their careers. “I didn’t go from being a college president to being a past college president. I went from being a college president to being a fly fisherman, a mule expert, a dog lover and trainer, a reader of books, and a lot of other things. I don’t consider my identity to be an ex-college president. Plus, I’ve continued to be active in civic matters and charitable organizations and things like that.”
He said, “All the years I was working, I feel like I was a very happy canary in a cage—I was singing all day long, had friends in the cage, was well-fed and had lots of interesting things to do. I could sit, look out the window and see the sunrise and sunset. I had all this—and then one day somebody left the cage door open. I flew out, flew around the room and little bit, then noticed there was a window open. I flew down the street and on and on to different places that I’d never seen or dreamed of before. After that experience you could never get me back in the cage again.”
John is no longer in his earthly cage.
You may send condolences or tributes to the family at SpanishValleyMortuary.com or SVMC.US.
