By Pauline Masson –
In October 2024, when the MVR-III school district announced its inaugural Pacific High School Hall of Fame the first name on the list of three inductees was David I. Hoven – a PHS alumn who does not fit the traditional definition of fame.
The other two names on the inaugural list, George Hinkle Jr and Linda Wells, each has a history in a particular sport that gave them a more recognizable claim to fame.
George Hinkle Jr was a PHS varsity football player who received a scholarship to Arizona State University, where on graduation was drafted into the NFL. There he played six seasons with the San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, and Cincinnati Bengals. After retiring from the NFL he came home to coach his alma mater, the Pacific High School Indians, which he led to its first winning season in over 10 years and first Four Rivers Conference title and District title in 15 years.
Linda Wells was a star athlete at Pacific High School and Southwest Missouri State. As a teen she played semi-pro softball on a team with players twice her age. As head coach at Arizona State she led the team to 12 NCAA Regional appearances and two Women’s College World Series appearances. She was head coach of the United States women’s softball team in the 1985 South Pacific Classic in Melbourne, Australia, and head coach of Greece women’s softball team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
David Hoven, on the other hand, was a local plumber, ‘hail-fellow-well-met,’ and an unreconstructed youth sports fanatic.
He was universally well liked, a larger than life handsome guy with a charismatic smile.
He enjoyed engaging community popularity. Still his son, former associate circuit judge David L. Hoven. says he was not a headline grabber. When Mr. Hoven was honored during the Pacific Chamber of Commerce’s seventeenth annual Queen Banquet where he was posthumously named a Chamber “Pioneer of Pacific,” the younger Hoven accepted the award on his father’s behalf to a standing ovation.
“He never sought recognition,” Judge Hoven said. “In fact, if he were here, he’d say to me, ‘Don’t be too impressed with all that applause, it’s not for you.’”
David Ivring Hoven was born in St. Louis on June 13, 1930. The family moved to Japan, Missouri when he was a small boy and then moved to Pacific in 1941 when he was in the sixth grade. He attended St. Bridget Elementary School and graduated from Pacific High School in 1947.
After working in construction for several years, he joined the Navy in 1951 during the Korean Conflict. He served aboard the USS Marshall, a destroyer that was based in San Diego and made three tours to Far East ports in Japan and China.
After six months away from home, he asked his fiancee Mary Chappius, a Pacific girl, to come to San Diego so they could get married. Mary and her parents flew to the San Diego naval base where the couple was married on June 30, 1951. Because only her parents could make the trip, the bride had no bridesmaids. Instead, two seamen from the young sailer’s ship stood up for them in the Naval Base wedding.
The couple would have six children David, Christine Custer Hoven, Daniel, Angela, Rebecca, and Stephanie Hoven Monroe. They all graduated from Pacific High School.
On the home front, the young Navy veterans was a whirlwind of activity. He joined every men’s group – the Pacific Jaycees, the Chamber of Commerce, Pacific Lions Club, and American Legion where he quickly gravitated to the leadership role as president or commander. He was also an active member of the Holy Name Society and the Pacific Libary Board.
Under his leadership, the Pacific Jaycees were recognized by the United States Jaycees as an outsanding club for a city under 5,000 and won the key project award at the state convention in Joplin in 1959 for a mail box project. In that year the Jaycees started the annual Halloween party for children, initiated a holiday lighting contest, and took the lead in helping to organize a new Jaycee Club at St. Clair.
In May 1962 when the Jaycees launched a survey to determine community attitudes in Pacific toward city amenitism they put Mr. Hoven in charge.
He sent out fifty questionnaires to businessmen, city officials, teachers, housewives, soldiers from the Nike base and long-time citizens. No topic was too mundane. Mr. Hoven asked citizens to comment on the school district, city streets, water and sewer service, electric, telephone and postal service, medical facilities in the city, newspapers, the local police department and fire protection.
He published the survey results in the June 31, 1962 issue of the Pacific Transcript. Survey responders gave good marks to the school district, police and fire districts,
Approximately 74 percent of those questioned believed that parks and recreational opportunities for children, teenagers and adults and older people were woefully inadequate.
Although Dave and Mary Hoven divorced in 1992. Mary Hoven would spend the next several decades working to keep the needs in the city park system in front of elected officials.
When Mr. Hoven went into the plumbing business in Pacific, he bought a used delivery van that he painted purple, identifying with PHS colors of purple and white, which he parked near every Pacific High game both at home and away.
In the late 1960s he was elected to the Meramec Valley R-III School Board where he served for 22 years and served as board president for several years.
With all his organizational skills, Mr. Hoven never outgrew the thrill of high school sports. He organized an adult basketball league that played at the Community School gymnasium every Friday evening for two decades.
In 1968, the year that Pacific High started a football program, Dave and Mary became charter members of the Pacific Indian Boosters Club, which was casually referred to as the Sports Club, where he served a year as president.
After the football program was started, Mr. Hoven became a member of the Pacific High School chain gang and was on the sidelines for every game measuring downs, a job he loved and kept at for more than 20 years.
His work with the sports club and high school sports earned the admiration of many in the community, including Chamber of Commerce directors.
“He was a sports fixture in the community,” emcee Larry Carter, said at the Chamber of Commerce banquet.
Mr Hoven died in February 2011 and is buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.
An acquaintance of Mr. Hoven, Keith Reidt posted a note to the younger Mr. Hoven on Legacy.com.
As the years go by in my life and I reflect back on the people who have made a difference in my life… your father was one of those people. I remember countless doubles tennis matches against your father. I never could figure out how he would beat us EVERY time. We were younger, faster, ect… but we could never beat him. 🙂 I really enjoyed those times and Dave Sr’s company. He was a great guy!!!
Who was it that said, “Life is not a game it’s a popularity contest?”
Also named to the first Hall Of Fame is the Pacific High Volley Ball Team of 1994. The only state championship team in Pacific History. Thought you should know this.
Don Wengler