John passed away Monday, May 13, 2024, after a week surrounded by family, friends, laughter, hugs, tears and love.

John was born June 23, 1950, in Spokane to Charles and Rayma Hathaway, and soon after moved to Lewiston, where he grew up in the Orchards alongside his siblings. He spent every summer day playing baseball and football with the neighborhood kids, creating friendships that lasted his entire life. John graduated from Lewiston High School in 1968, where he led his football, basketball and baseball teams to success. He and his brothers and childhood friends created a Lewiston legacy on the baseball field in Legion Baseball, so much so that they named Hathaway Field after his family. His athletic abilities created opportunities including being drafted out of high school by the St. Louis Cardinals, and scholarships to play baseball and football all over the country. His education won out over the major leagues, and he chose to attend University of Idaho to play quarterback and safety. Much like the tales of “walking to school in the snow uphill both ways,” he told stories of breaking state records in the pole vault barefoot because he couldn’t afford shoes, tackling an opponent from the sidelines after an interception, getting thrown out of bounds by a future NFL linebacker and landing on the track destroying his shoulder, playing against Ahmad Rashad and Dan Fouts, and holding the record for 41 years at Autzen Stadium (Oregon) of the most downs played in a college football game. As years went on his daughters learned from old teammates and friends that every single story was true.

John is survived by his wife of 33 years, Kathleen (Gibson) Hathaway, and his daughters Emily Mikkelsen (Mac), Molly Davis (Trek), Betsy DeRoshia (Jeff) (with first wife Teresa Medalen), and stepdaughter Jamie Mason Grover (Chris). He was the No. 1 Fan of all his grandchildren, Lexi, Olivia and Calvin Mikkelsen, Jaxson, Cooper and Delaney Davis, and Alexa and Eli Mason, who all inherited his athletic ability, and he loved every minute watching them play sports, and bragging them up to anyone he talked to. He had a close relationship with his siblings, Charley, Tom and Melanie, along with numerous cousins and nieces and nephews, all his life. He truly cherished his Lewiston, University of Idaho, concrete world guys and Downriver Golf Course friends. He and Kathy golfed almost every day, and treasured the hellos, handshakes and drinks with the other Downriver regulars. He was proud of the work he did for concrete business he owned, and later his sales job at SECO and Nox-Crete where everyone, including his competitors, became his friends. His favorite places in the world were the Downriver Golf Course and the St. Joe River, where he thoroughly enjoyed fly-fishing with his cousin Rod.

A memorial service for John will be planned for this summer once his family recovers from the loss of his presence. John suffered from dementia, but he would be so proud to know that his brain was donated to the BRaIN Lab at the University of Washington and will contribute to the research of dementia and traumatic brain injuries. He will be missed greatly, but there is happiness knowing he is now free and at peace. We know he is celebrating with friends and family who have passed before him, including his mother and father, two sisters Gwen and Mary Jane, and many friends who he loved like family.

Even near the end of his life, when it was not easy and his words didn’t come like they used to, he would whisper “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”