Michael Hackmeister

Mike Hackmeister passed away at the age of 67 on March 24, 2022, surrounded by the people and dogs he loved after months battling Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). He was the loudest quiet man his wife Mary Ann had ever met, but what he lacked in words he made up with knuckle cracking, cellophane crinkling, and infectious laughter. He was a fierce protector of his family, but a keen detective to his kids' hijacks way back when they were teenagers. His family could often determine his mood by judging the height of his red hair as a makeshift temper barometer. They often used this measurement to determine whether they should pull any pranks where he would be the butt of. They usually decided, yes, yes, they should.

Mike was born on July 31, 1954 and was an avid bass fisherman for his entire life, dragging his family to various waterways to share his love of fishing, a practice he utilized during his courtship of Mary Ann, his wife of 47 years. She and her family moved in across the street from the Hackmeisters in Castlereagh, where Mike lived with his siblings Terrie, Mark, and Dean. The two families quickly became friends thanks to their love of dangerous pranks and twisted humor. While their siblings chased one another with machetes and bottle rockets, Mike and Mary Ann, lifelong introverts, found one another among the head-scratching but hilarious chaos. On January 11, 1974, Mike and Mary Ann went on their first date at Westport Cinema to watch the now-classic flick American Graffiti. Their love bloomed, despite Mary Ann's suspicions Mike only needed help carrying his fishing gear and boat into local ponds. But he admired more than her upper body strength. They fell in love and married on May 9, 1975, welcoming their first-born, Mike Jr., later that year.

But his quest for the perfect fishing spot persisted despite the arrival of three more children, Joe, Katie, and Brian, as well as the numerous pets that Mary Ann often returned home with under the guise of "running errands". He once led his family on an infamous and fruitless expedition to Lake Okeechobee in Florida, a sweaty road trip that they never let him forget.

Mike didn't let living in suburbia get in the way of his love of Farmall tractors and had one of those giant red monstrosities parked in the backyard for decades. But he delighted his children with tractor rides in their Florissant home back in the day. Luckily, in his later years, he reached his dream of becoming a true countryman with acres of property in Monroe County, allowing him to proudly own multiple Farmall tractors.

Mike shared his interests with his children. He and Mike Jr. both loved sports, especially hockey, and both grown men cried tears of joy when the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019. He was also a handyman, and shared his love of tinkering on car and tractor engines with Joe. Mike and Brian were the only ones in the family to get giddy over Star Trek and other sci-fi shows, including the unknown cult-hit Sliders. And while he and Katie didn't share any hobbies, he thought she walked on water and she felt like she won an award whenever she could make him laugh, which was pretty much all the time.

He was thrilled to become a grandfather to Kayla and Aedan, spoiling them with gifts and letting them play with basketball balls in the house, one of the many things that made his adult children say, "You never let us do that."

Mike left this world with Mary Ann holding his hand and moved on to another realm with his first stop at the Rainbow Bridge to collect all the family pets that had gone before him. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be given to www.psp.org.

The Visitation for Mike will be held at Newcomer Funeral Home on 2211 Clarkson Road in Chesterfield, MO from 3-8pm on Thursday, March 31 with a funeral Mass at Sts. Joachim and Ann at 4112 McClay Road in St. Charles, MO at 10am on Friday, April 1 with Visitation beginning at 9:30 am.

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