Lee James Haver
April 21, 1938 – March 4, 2020
Lee was born in Omaha, NE to the late Clarence and Marie Haver. Lee founded Haver’s Conoco in 1957 and built a thriving automotive repair business (Haver’s Service Center) that was later transitioned to three of his sons.
He is survived by his wife, Eloise (Dugan); daughter, Karen Moritz (Randy); sons: Jim Haver (Patty), Jeff Haver (Michelle), John Haver (Lisa) and Joel Haver (Sarah); ten grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Family will receive friends Thursday, March 12, 2020, 5:00pm to 8:00pm, West Center Chapel. FUNERAL SERVICE: Friday, March 13, 2020, 11:00 am, Lutheran Church of the Master, 2617 S 114th St. Omaha, Nebraska.
Private INTERMENT. Memorials are suggested to Lutheran Church of the Master.
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Lee was born in Omaha, NE to the late Clarence and Marie Haver. He was a 1956 graduate of Omaha North High School. He was married to Eloise (Dugan) Haver (Bigelow) in September of 1958.
Lee is survived by wife, Eloise (Dugan); daughter, Karen (Randy) Moritz and children Landon (Megan) Miller and their children Landry and Lennox, CJ (Yuhong) Miller and their child Theodore, Leann (Ryan) Grant and child Emma; son, Jim (Patty) Haver and their children Zach (Lynn) and their children Noah and Liam, Abby (Charles) Garcia; Jeff (Michelle) Haver and children Mitch and Matt, John (Lisa) Haver and their children Delaney and Carly; and Joel (Sarah) Haver and their children Jay and Jillian.
Lee opened Haver’s Conoco on April 23, 1957 in Omaha, NE. He started when he was 19 years old serving the neighborhood near 42nd Nebraska Avenue. This was back when a brake repair was $25.00 and gas averaged $0.30 per gallon. Lee established a commitment to go above and beyond for his customers, as evidenced by 7 a.m. – 10 p.m., seven days a week, open for business. In 1979, Haver’s Conoco moved to a new location at 2410 S. 120th Street. Here, Lee expanded his gasoline service to include a convenience store, while providing the area’s most reliable automotive repair service. Lee ran the epitome of a family business as Dugan, Karen, Jim, Jeff, John, Joel and many more relatives and friends worked in the business at some point. By the early 80s, Lee’s oldest son Jim joined the family business and they both later decided to stop selling gas and expand the automotive repair facility.
In the fall of 1992 Haver’s Service Center was born at 2343 S. 156th Circle. Lee’s youngest son Joel came into the business in 1997 after graduation from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Lee’s second son Jeff joined the business in 2000 after an 11 year career as a mechanical engineer for Maytag Corporation. In 2003, Haver’s Service Center’s ownership was transitioned to Jim, Jeff, and Joel. Lee enjoyed hanging around the shops and helping out where he could after his retirement.
Lee’s wife Dugan played a huge part in helping grow the business over the years. She was instrumental in raising the children and keeping the company books.
Church life was very important to Lee. Over the years Lee was very involved in the church council, choir and many other church activities. Lee was a regular on Sundays but also lived his faith outside of church. He recently finished reading the Bible for the seventh time.
Lee lived a life of significance.
9 Comments
We are keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers. Lee was a good friend and will be missed dearly.
We will miss Lee very much. What a friendly, light-hearted man he was! Despite the nearly 50 years that have passed by since we first became customers of Haver’s Service Center, we still remember the time we first brought in our Chevy minivan to be serviced and Lee told us we would have to find a cat with a very long tongue to keep the inside of the windshield clean. We regret that we will be out of town Thursday and Friday so we will miss the visitation and memorial service. This message will have to serve as our reach out to every member of the family and all of the employees at Haver’s who will miss him even more than we do. On behalf of our family—Dean, Sandy, Jill, Matt, Mitch, Nora and Saige—to your family, we extend our deepest sympathy.
Sad to here of Lee’s passing! I will always appreciate my relationship with Lee . Dugan and other family members over the years. and extend prayers and condolences to all of you. , I am in AZ and will not be able to attend services . I airways appreciated Lee’s dedication to his family,, customers and business associate’s .
I send condolences to all your family. Lee was special to a lot of his customers on North 42nd. He was just not just our mechanic but a fellow North High grad who kept our old clunkers alive. In the past couple of years we talked on the phone and laughed about those very special times. Rest In Peace friend.
Sad to here of Lee’s passing. Lee was my dad’s first cousin. Several years ago my wife Gretchen and I took Lee and Dugan out to dinner. Lee recounted a lot of old family history that I had never heard before, and he was generous enough to pass on copies of a bunch of old family photographs. It was a delightful evening spent with two charming people. On behalf of our side of the Haver family, we extend our deepest sympathy to your family, but we are happy to know that Lee’s faith has given him eternal life in Heaven.
My condolences to the Haver Family.
My prayers go to the Haver family. My Foster dad knew Lee at his gas station on 42nd Street. and he always got his gas there in the sixties. I felt Lee and my foster dad were good friends. My foster dad’s name was Hugo Behrens and we lived on 38th and Curtis between Belvedere and McMillan. Again my thoughts and prayers to the family
We were so sorry to hear of Lee’s passing. It was always a pleasure to bring our vehicles to Haver’s for service, especially when you were within walking distance. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this sad time.
So sorry to hear about his passing. I lived on 45th and Curtis and have many great memories of him and the service station. I can remember a candy machine inside the station that had a pot luck on it. Every once in a while we would hit the pot luck and get about 20 candy bars all at once. We would also rent bike cycles that had two seats on them. Simple times!
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