Ward Road resident Don Forbes remembers John Hochadel as a strong, independent man who loved a good joke.

“We’d meet at the mailbox,” Forbes, 52, said.

The two would talk and joke around before going back inside. Every time they would go their separate ways, Forbes would say, “See you later.”

Hochadel would respond, “I hope so.”

Driving in the rain late in the night of Tuesday, Nov. 7, Hochadel died suddenly in a traffic accident. He was 84.

“He was a great guy,” Forbes said. “He had a good fighting spirit.”

Hovering somewhere between persistent and stubborn, Hochadel had lived alone in his Windham home since his wife Audrey died in 1993. Forbes remembers seeing him outside with his snow blower every winter until last year.

That’s when Hochadel’s son, Joseph Hochadel of South Portland, began paying someone to sneak in with a snowplow before his father had a chance to clear the driveway after a storm.

He was a “very independent person, didn’t like to receive favors, but would grant them,” Joseph Hochadel said.

Joseph also hired a woman to come and help his father around the house with cooking and cleaning, which he said his father resisted “tooth and nail.”

Greatest generation

“He went through some of the greatest events of our time,” Forbes said.

Born to a second-generation German immigrant family in New Jersey, Hochadel lost his mother at the age of 5. His father never remarried. The family, which was now Hochadel, his two brothers and his father, struggled after that, Joseph Hochadel said.

Hochadel joined the U.S. Army during World War II and served with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was airdropped into D-Day in an engineless glider made of wood, metal and canvas. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge where he suffered nerve damage to his feet from frostbite. He was wounded in Belgium and awarded a Purple Heart before being honorably discharged as a Sergeant.

Joseph Hochadel said his father never liked to talk about the war.

Employed as a truck driver, Hochadel was a member of the Teamsters union in New Jersey. He was elected to represent his coworkers to management as the shop steward.

Joseph said his father took “great pride” knowing that his Teamster local never cut any deals with gangsters when the union was riddled with corruption during Jimmy Hoffa’s heyday.

Neighbor Don Forbes, himself a member of a union, said Hochadel still believed strongly in labor unions in his twilight years and was always interested in discussing them.

After working for 35 years, Hochadel retired at the age of 62. He and his wife moved to Windham where he got a job delivering pharmaceuticals. In 2003, Hochadel lost his son John.

State police say they don’t know what caused Hochadel to enter the off-ramp of I-295 in the darkness and downpour last Tuesday night when he drove the wrong way on the southbound lane and into the path of South Portland resident William Murphy, 65, killing both.

Joseph said his father was a huge baseball fan and that his childhood was filled with trips to Yankee Stadium and playing catch in the yard. Left-handed, Hochadel would put a right-handed baseball glove on backwards or catch the ball with his big, bare hands.

Hochadel loved to drive. As a kid, Sunday meant putting on an itchy wool suit and going for a joy ride in the family’s big Mercury, Joseph said.

When Joseph started playing college football at the University of Maine in Orono the family was still living in New Jersey. Hochadel would drive up every weekend to watch his son play.

That’s just the kind of guy he was, Forbes said.

John Hochadel