POULSBO — Hal Hoover had so much enthusiasm for people and for life that injury and pain couldn’t keep him down.

According to his daughter, Kristy Trione, Hoover spent much of his life in pain. His back was injured when he was a child growing up in Idaho, but that didn’t keep him from graduating from high school early to join the Navy during World War II.

When he was 23, he injured an eye while working on a car.

Years later, after he suffered a stroke, he joked that he was “doing pretty good for a guy with one good eye and half a brain.”

Perhaps you’ve walked on a North Kitsap trail and bumped into Hoover and his wife, Helen. He likely stopped and talked to you, your kids, your dog, and maybe adopted them all on site. “I have so many honorary brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews,” Trione said.

Even in his last year of life as he wrestled with prostate cancer, he skied Stevens Pass and Whistler; volunteered as a docent at Point No Point Light; rode in the Kingston Fourth of July Parade; raised money for the Kingston Kiwanis Club, Village Green Community Center and the proposed Boys & Girls Club; tutored at Wolfle Elementary School; and sang in a barbershop quartet.

“He worked through his pain,” Helen Hoover said. “He found out on Sept. 15 that the cancer had spread from his prostate to his spine. It went pretty fast after that.”

Hal Hoover, a retired music educator, school district administrator and former mayor of Poulsbo, died Oct. 10 at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton. He was 88. A public celebration of his life is scheduled for Nov. 8, noon to 4 p.m., in the Kingston High School Gymnasium.

According to people who knew him, there will be a lot to celebrate.

“You won’t find anybody who doesn’t have a Hal story,” said Walt Elliott, a Kingston port commissioner and volunteer for many causes.

Harold Milton (Hal) Hoover was born on July 21, 1926 in Paul, Idaho to Alfred and Maude Hoover. He had three sisters, Elizabeth, Margaret and Helen. He graduated from Emmett High School in 1944 and served on the USS Blount (AK-163), a cargo ship that delivered troops, goods and equipment to locations in the South Pacific. He later attended Washington State University under the GI Bill, earning a master’s degree in music education.

North Kitsap School District hired him in 1950 as the director of elementary and junior high music education. He and Helen Jean Ladd of Spokane married that December and started a family that grew, his daughter wrote, “exponentially beyond the bounds of blood with his big heart.”

Trione said her father was passionate about student-centered education and making sure that every child learns, and eventually moved into the high school music program. He directed an award-winning band and, Helen recalled, “Our upstairs unfinished living room was stacked with Almond Roca to pay for uniforms.”

Hoover worked toward a PhD, earned superintendent credentials and served as vice principal of North Kitsap Junior High and principal of Central Kitsap Junior High. He started ski-school programs at North and Central Kitsap. He retired in 1980 as assistant superintendent of business and finance of the Central Kitsap School District, after overseeing the building of new schools to address a rapid increase in student population from the Navy’s Trident submarine program.

Hoover served on the Poulsbo City Council from 1962-1973 and served as the city’s 13th mayor in 1969 after Frank Raab resigned because he was moving outside the city limits. As a council member, Hoover played a key role in finding new water sources for the growing city — his wife said he was instrumental in the development of the water tower near Lincoln and Pugh roads and was an “instigator” of Frank Raab Park.

Hoover had moved to Kingston by the time Becky Erickson got involved in Poulsbo government, but the current mayor said she saw him at political meetings. “He was still active in and passionate about local government,” Erickson said. “I used to call him the ‘colonel of Kingston’ because he just had presence about him. He was really a remarkable man and he was deeply loved.”

Hoover was founding commodore of the Poulsbo Yacht Club, lent his rich bass voice to barbershop choruses for 37 years, and earned a private pilot’s license.

Despite his many involvements, he always made time for his children and their interests.

“He was an amazing, loving dad,” Trione said. “He was there for every single kid, every grandkid, every great-grandkid — and for his adopted kids and families from all over the place. We had an exchange student from Thailand; she and her family are coming [for his celebration of life]. We’re seeing such an outpouring of love from people.”

He helped his children build their houses, and he bragged that he built “the nicest house in Poulsbo,” his daughter said.

“He was a fun guy. And he was always there for us.”

The Hoovers moved to Kingston in 2004 after Hal suffered a stroke. He worked hard to get back on skis, back on his bicycle, and involved in his community. He jumped into activities in his new hometown; he and his wife, a former North Kitsap School Board member, advocated for construction of Kingston High School and work to get a bond measure approved for its construction.

The Hoovers divided their time between Kingston, Pearson Point, and Whistler. Helen Hoover said her husband’s ashes will be spread “at a lot of his favorite places.”

He is survived by Helen, his wife of 64 years; children, Kim (Marcy), Kregg (Kimberlee), Kristy Trione (David), and Konni Barich (Larry); 11 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren with one on the way; nieces, nephews, and many surrogate children and grandchildren. Contributions can be made in his memory to the Village Green Foundation Boys and Girls Club, P.O. Box 1317, Kingston, WA 98346. www.kingstonvillagegreen.org