John Arnold (Arnie) Hilden, a longtime Ontonagon resident and businessman, died Friday, Feb. 22 at the Ontonagon Long Term Care Facility, where he had been a resident since last spring. He was 95.

He was known to everyone as "Arnie" and for many years operated a silk-screen printing business as well as a rooming house and sauna at his residence on Quartz St.

Arnie was born May 24, 1917, in Antigo, WI, the son of John and Amanda Lehto Hilden, (later Amanda Kervinen). He attended Wabeno (WI) schools early in his life but later moved to Ontonagon with his parents.

He graduated from Ontonagon High School in 1936, in the depths of the Great Depression. This member of the Greatest Generation, like many others, found it difficult to find a job. With a friend from Wisconsin, he rode the rails to the Pacific Northwest, in an unsuccessful search for a job picking crops. Instead, he worked on the railroads there, laying ties, but after a time returned to Wisconsin, again by riding the boxcars.

He attended business school in Green Bay, but after completion of his studies still couldn't find a decent job. So in 1937 Arnie joined the U.S. Navy, serving for four years on a number of ships.

He returned to Wabeno after his Navy term was up, and on Nov. 22, 1941, two weeks before Pearl Harbor, he married Dolores Enders of Wabeno. They had known each other since childhood.

As the war began he was recalled to the Navy, but was deferred for medical reasons. Instead, he worked at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, CA, helping to build the ships and submarines that eventually brought total victory to the Allies.

Arnie and Dolores moved back to Wisconsin in 1944, and operated a tavern in Milwaukee for a time. They later operated several businesses in Wabeno and Laona, WI, and Dolores worked as a registered nurse. In 1961 they moved to Ontonagon, where he continued his silk-screening business and operated a rooming house. As a silk screener, Arnie was a major supplier of shirts to the Milwaukee Braves for a time, and also to the national campground chain KOA, among others.

Dolores was a nurse at the Ontonagon Memorial Hospital for many years and in 1967 became the first director of nurses at the new Ontonagon Medical Care Facility. She died Jan. 22, 2008, at the age of 88, after a marriage of 66 years.

Arnie was a 50 year-member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and of the local aerie. He also was a member of Holy Family Catholic Church. He was a great joke and storyteller, quick with a smile and a quip, captivating his grandchildren with stories about the Depression and how he rode the rails with a lot of other young men desperate for work in those desperate times. He was an ardent historian, extremely proud of how his mother came to this country alone from Finland as a girl and worked her way into the American Dream.

Arnie was quick to adapt to new technology, maintaining e-mail contact with many friends and family members well into his nineties, and had an abiding interest in the Green Bay Packers. He told many stories of sneaking into the old City Stadium as a boy to see them play.

He is survived by four children: Mary Ellen (Dan) Chabot of Bonita Springs, FL; Thomas (Bonnie) Hilden of Green Bay, Christine (Bernard) Gregorich of Ontonagon, and John (Carolyn) Hilden of Marquette; six grandchildren: Rob (Joy) Gregorich of Green Bay and Kelly (Gregorich) Lebert of Marinette, WI; Gregg Chabot of Bainbridge Island, WA, Christian Chabot of Seattle, WA, Brett Chabot; of Cooper City, FL; and David (Lucia) Hilden of Ann Arbor, MI. Nine great-grandchildren also survive: Zachary and Allison Gregorich; Sage and Chelsea Lebert; Lafayette and Wyatt Chabot; Noah and Troy Chabot; and Carson Chabot. He was preceded in death by an older sister, Ceil.

A private memorial service for Arnie will be held in early summer.

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At Dolores' funeral five years ago, a verse, "If You Go First," was read in tribute to their 66 years of marriage. In part it said,

"...I want to know each step you take, that I may walk the same For someday down that lonely road, you'll hear me call your name Should you go first and I remain, one thing I'll have you do Walk slowly down that long, long path, for soon I'll follow you"

Walk slowly, Dolores, look who's coming...