09 August 2004

Obituary of Harry J. Coogan
(extracted from "Reno Evening Gazette", 12 SEP 1941, PAGE 22):


HARRY J. COOGAN DIES AT AGE OF 67

Harry J. Coogan, for thirty-eight years active in Democratic Party
politics in Nevada and on the best known men in the state, died
at nine o'clock this morning at a local hospital.  He had been ill
for more than six weeks.

For the last several years, up to the time of his final illness, Mr.
Coogan had been employed as a statistician for the works progress
administration.  He was chairman of the Washoe county Democratic
central committee from 1938 to 1940 and was secretary and a charter
member of the Silver Key Club.

Mr. Coogan and his young wife came to Nevada from Buffalo, N.Y. in
1903.  They heard of the excitement in Goldfield while they were on
a train enroute to San Francisco, whence they had intended to sail
for Australia and the South Pacific Islands.

In the sprawling camp of tents and shacks that was Goldfield the 
Coogans remained for eight years.  He was employed as a reporter on
one of the Goldfield newspapers and immediately commenced to take an
interest in state and national politics.  With the subsiding of the 
mining boom they moved to Carson in 1912 when Mr. Coogan became
deputy state controller.  Later he worked for the Carson Appeal.

Mr. Coogan's interest in politics never lagged and through the years
he kept in close contact with the men and parties who governed the
state and was on intimate terms with the men behind the scenes.  He
was one of the real old "wheel horses" and lived in close contact
with the excitement and speculation accompanying Nevada politics.

He was born in Buffalo, N.Y., sixty seven years ago and attended the
public schools in Buffalo.  He was graduated from the judgement
school of St. Cornicus college, and traveled extensively for the
next ten years making many trips to Europe.  He toured countries in
northern Europe spending much time in Germany and Switzerland.  In
Germany he met his wife and they were married in 1901.  The couple 
returned to Buffalo and a short time later started the western trip
which led them to Nevada.  Mrs. Coogan died in Carson in 1929.

Surviving are three children, Mary, John and Harry Coogan of Dunkirk,
N.Y., a brother Roy Bruce Coogan of Dunkirk, and a niece, Mrs. Henry
Moeller of Reno.  He was a member of Reno council No. 978, Knights
of Columbus, and the Fraternal Order of the Eagles.  Funeral
arrangements will be announced later by the O'Brien-Rogers company.