John Stogran


                           


                        

The West Virginia State CCC Museum Association is proud to induct John Stogran into the State CCC Hall of Fame at the April 20, 2013 Spring Jubilee. The event was held at the Quiet Dell United Methodist Church meeting room.
      
Our Honoree was born September 30, 1920 at Lily Mine, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Anna and Peter Stogran who immigrated to the United States from Austria in 1910. In his family were two sisters and three brothers. Ann was the eldest, then Peter, Michael, me, Charles, and Mary. They have all passed.
       
John joined up with the CCC on July 21, 1939. He served from Cumberland, Maryland to Luray, Virginia camp 350-NP2.  During his tenure with the CCC, his first job was landscaping at the resort at Big Meadows along the scenic Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. He also worked with fire service there working with sewage treatment and building restrooms in a hundred mile area along the Skyline Drive. “Back then, it was a vast scenic wilderness.” he commented. John also helped do laundry for over two hundred. “I also saw cabin that President Herbert Hoover owned along a beautiful backwoods path called Hoover Road. We stocked the stream near that wonderful cabin, but never saw him (Hoover). But, we looked hard to see him.”
    
Stogran remembers the tough baseball competition between the camps in that beautiful country. “We had a talented team. When camp 350 won the tournament which was held near the top of Stony Mountain in 1939, we were awarded a trip to Luray Caverns.” he explained. “I was the umpire, and I got a lot of heat for some of my  calls, I remember. I Will never forget that visit to the caves.”
      
Hall of Famer Stogran also made a strong statement about the CCC: “It was a beautiful thing (CCC) I was part of. While at camp I learned wood carving. You know, benches and the like.  But, the most important skill I learned was to use the typewriter. When I served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during the World War II at bombardier school, they asked who could type. I raised my hand. Because I had learned how to type in the CCC, I was moved up to mess hall supervisor of over 2000 young bombardiers. Yes, the CCC gave me an advantage. The CCC changed my life for the better.” He explained that during the Great Depression there was little hope. But, he said “the CCC training and work, gave me hope for a better day.”
     
Mr. Stogran had to quit high school at West Bethlehem high in Marianna, Pennsylvania, to enter the CCC in Maryland and Virginia. After the war, he worked in Michigan and married Mary Catherine Mazzo who has since passed away. They had one daughter who with her husband was killed in an auto accident in Texas. He later remarried in 1966 to Clara Jean McClung.  Stogran's brother lived in West Virginia at West Milford, in Harrison County. John moved down to West Milford and got a good job at Roland Glass Plant where he worked for twenty nine years, retiring from Fourco Glass, Jerry Run Division, Bridgeport in 1981. 
        
Our newest Hall of Fame member supports the West Virginia State CCC Museum Association.  Stogran attends CCC functions regularly. He and his wife, Clara Jean reside in Suan Terrace, Clarksburg, West Virginia.





John Stogran in the Army Air Corps.

John Stogran is inducted into the Hall of Fame.

John Stogran at the induction to the Hall of Fame.