Verne was born on Saturday, Feb. 2, 1924, in Howard Township, N.D., to the late Joseph Oscar Hegge and the late Ellen Malinda Goodsmanson Hegge. He was raised and educated in Elgin, N.D., and graduated from Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Mont. He proudly served with the Merchant Marines during World War II and then joined the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1952.
Verne was employed for years as electronic engineer with the Department of the Army, Electronic Proving Ground. He married Oveda Mae Whitworth. She died in 1994. Verne married Elsie Hegge in 1994 in Tombstone, Ariz. He was an active member of Sierra Vista United Methodist Church, a life member of the Sierra Vista Elks Lodge No. 2065, B.P.O.E., a charter master of Huachuca Lodge No. 53 F&AM, past master of King Solomon Lodge F&AM, Tombstone; grand master F&AM of Arizona from 1986 to 1987; past illustrious grand master of Cryptic Masons of Arizona in 1979; and past grand high priest of Royal Arch Masons of Arizona in 1984. He was also a 33rd Degree, Scottish Rite and a Past Sovereign Tucson Conclave of Red Cross of Constantine. Vern was a member of the Sierra Vista City Council and the first president of the Sierra Vista City Library Board. He served as chairman of the zoning board of appeals, and he was on the Sierra Vista Community Hospital board for 13 years and was president for five of those years.
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Verne is survived by his wife, Elsie; his son, Richard D. Hegge, and a granddaughter, Dominic Hegge, both of Phoenix, Ariz.; a stepdaughter, Julie Bogseth, and her husband, Greg, of Oakland, Neb.; and a nephew, Ron Stevenson, and his wife, Elizabeth, of Sun City, Ariz. He is preceded in death by not only his parents and his first wife, but his brothers, Allen and Myron, and his sisters, Marlys Stevens and Irma Brandt.
Visitation will be held 4 to 7 p.m. today, Nov. 19, 2008, at Hatfield Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at Sierra Vista United Methodist Church at 11 a.m. with Pastor Peter Vaught officiating. Interment will follow at the Cochise Memory Gardens with Masonic and Eastern Star rites. If friends wish, they may make memorial contribution in his honor to the charity of their choice.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Hatfield Funeral Home.
