Roger Hardy Gleason

CMSgt. Roger Hardy Gleason (RET)
It is with broken hearts that we share the news that Roger Hardy Gleason, 74, left this world and entered the wild blue yonder April 2, 2021 at his winter home in Gold Canyon AZ.
Born to Ruth and Harold Gleason in Heber City UT on May 3, 1946, Roger was the second of five children. After moving to Idaho in 1954, he attended Washington Elementary, North Junior High, Boise High School, and Boise State University.
On August 2, 1965, Roger and his buddy Ron Harris cast their fate to the wind and joined the Idaho Air National Guard. Roger served in the Guard as an Education and Training Superintendent, Personnel Chief Enlisted Manager, and as Idaho’s Air AGR Manager until he retired in 2004 …for the first time. After being coaxed back soon after to the State Headquarters as a Military Personnel Specialist, he retired for the second time in 2016, for no other reason than that he was 70 and his older brother Lane had retired at that age.
Roger married Annie Richardson in 1968 and they were later divorced. On July 26, 1986, Roger married Laura Holt and, along with her son Eric, began almost 35 years of laughter, crazy times, quiet times, and times of learning from each other. Together, Laura and Roger travelled to many places across the country, their favorite being Hawaii. In 2011, Roger and Laura opened a new chapter in their lives and took their first of many trips to Gold Canyon AZ, where they built a winter home in 2015. Their lives were immeasurably enriched by the many new and very dear friends they made there and the cavalcade of entertaining adventures that dotted those years…both in AZ and visiting the homes of these friends in both the U.S. and Canada.
A sports enthusiast of the highest order, Roger dabbled in bowling, softball, and fishing and most of all golf with his sidekick, Moe Detmar. Roger was an avid Boise State fan and never missed an opportunity to talk about being at the Fiesta Bowl in 2007 when his beloved Broncos beat Oklahoma. The friends Roger made at the Air National Guard decorated the rest of his life and were often seen in his company on the links throughout the valley. Perhaps his favorite sports, though, were those in which he watched his son, and later his grandchildren, play.
Roger was a quiet man, not given to overt expressions of emotion; a man who was first and foremost a gentleman and a man who treasured his wife, son and his son’s family above all else. He was bursting with pride when he watched his son graduate from the United States Air Force Academy and don the blue uniform that Roger proudly wore for 30+ years. His happiest times were spent at the ballfields of Colorado cheering on his grandchildren Keely and Brody and just being a loving and adoring PopPop to the two of them. He had a ready smile for everyone and was widely known as one who really listened and was genuinely interested in everything others had to say.
The world is a sadder place because he left it but at the same time a brighter place because he was once a part of it…
Roger is survived by his wife Laura of Boise, his son, Eric (Marci) Holt of Denver CO, his two precious grandchildren, Keely and Brody Holt, his brothers, Lane (Mary) Gleason, Doug Gleason of Boise, and Steve Gleason of Atlanta Georgia and his sister, Elizabeth Bates of Boise and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Ruth and Harold Gleason.
Due to COVID, the family has elected to have a private service at which Roger will be laid to rest beside his parents at Dry Creek cemetery.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Idaho Food Bank or to a local veterans’ organizations…