Remembering the man in the hat

Steve Hanna was the man in the hat. 

“If he ever didn’t want to work or didn’t want to be recognized, all he’d have to do is just take his hat off, and nobody’d recognize him,” said Andy Hanna, Steve’s son.

But Steve didn’t try to go unrecognized. From the time he joined Hanna’s Garden Shop in 1989 to his death, Steve worked to help customers with their gardening questions as well as anything else they asked.

Steve died from cancer on May 18, after a year-long battle with lung cancer. Even when he was sick, Andy said his father enjoyed coming around the shop. It was hard that he couldn’t help, Andy said, but he was never bitter. 

“He certainly wasn’t happy that he was dying, but he was not bitter and he was not terrified,” Andy said. “He was still smiling and laughing.”

To Andy, his dad’s willingness to help customers with any issue is what helped him connect with the community.

“That was his huge thing, was putting the people first, and never saying, ‘We don’t do that’ or ‘That’s not what we do,’ just always trying to solve the problem whatever it is,” Andy said.

Sometimes that meant driving out to a customer’s house on a Sunday to tend a sick tree. Other times it meant giving directions to a restaurant. He always “put the people first,” even if it meant coming in early or staying late. Steve never wanted to tell someone ‘No.’

That passion to help people led Steve to instill the same values in his children. Andy and his siblings, Chris and Lauren, grew up working at the garden shop, and their father always made sure they were polite, shaking hands and looking customers in the eye. 

“We really associate this [store] with him and working with him,” Andy said. Not only that, but we knew that it was something he spent an amazing amount of time building and engaging with people as they came in.”

More than a boss

Following his death, customers and former employees came by the shop with stories or sent notes about Steve. They attributed their gardening skills or work ethic to his help and guidance. Katelyn Mitchell, an employee at Hanna’s for more than five years, said she always thought she was a unique employee who had a special bond with Steve. She has found, however, that he made a lot of people feel that way.

“Everybody I’m talking to that had a close relationship with him feels like he had a special bond with him,” she said. “They feel like they are the one person who was so special to him because he made them feel that way.”

But it was never disingenuous, Mitchell said. He would make customers feel at ease, and he always encouraged employees to do the same. They were never allowed to let a customer wander by themselves. The same care for customers was seen with his employees.

Wendy Webber started working at Hanna’s in 2001, and she said Steve went above and beyond what a normal boss would do. She said he helped people find houses if they needed help, lent his car to her when hers broke down and allowed people to bring their kids in if daycare was closed.

“He was a very dear friend, a father figure,” Webber said. “He really meant a lot to me.”

At work, he pushed employees to do their best. His expectations were high but fair, Mitchell said. Essentially, if someone brought Steve an idea, they were expected to make it happen. 

“But we’d do it because it’s Steve,” Mitchell said. “He invested a lot of time in us, in people in general.”

A lasting legacy

Even though death is always hard on a family, Andy said the timing worked out in relation to Hanna’s. When his dad brought him into the shop three years ago, neither knew he was dying. In that time, Andy learned the ins and outs of the shop, allowing for a smooth transition between him and his father running the store.

“Even toward the end of his life when I’d ask him for advice, he’d say, ‘You don’t need my advice. You can do it,’” Andy said.

Hanna’s Garden Shop will always have Steve’s mark on it. For employees, the care Steve showed at Hanna’s inspired them to take care of the shop after his death.

“He’s the type that makes you want to do your job well, makes you care about it,” Webber said. “He did so much for me that it would make me want to take care of this place.”

It’s also obvious in the way Andy runs the place, Mitchell said. He has the same fearless quality and willingness to take on any task. Just like his dad, Andy won’t let a customer go unattended and he keeps an eye on everything.

“They see everything,” Mitchell said. “You’re not going to get away with not talking to someone under either of their watches.”