Sharon Hanel

Sharon Kay Hanel, beloved wife, mother, educator, and accidental arsonist, completed her baptismal journey on April 21, 2023, in Thornton, Colorado. She was 78.

Sharon prized her family, her faith, education, a good prank and the occasional good fight. She read avidly, including every book ever written by Stephen King. She passed her love of reading down to her sons and husband, and to hundreds of children over the years through her volunteer work.

Sharon nearly single-handedly created, stocked, and staffed the school library at Zion Lutheran School in Lakewood, where her sons attended. She was a stalwart volunteer at the school and church for many years. When her kids went off to high school, she took a job as a special education teacher’s aide at Deer Creek Middle School, where she nurtured kids with learning and emotional disabilities.

Sharon knew how to play the long con. One autumn, she began insisting to her young adult children that she wanted a PlayStation for Christmas. Over the course of many weeks, she convinced her skeptical family that she was serious. On Christmas morning, she said “I can’t wait to open my prayer station!” She forced the boys to keep the PlayStation — a consolation prize for getting suckered by a true master.

Sharon would not tolerate bullies, and she was often the first to “pipe up,” as she would say, when she saw injustice.

Sharon Kay Kipp was born August 24, 1944, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, the fourth of 10 children, to Gerald and Ethel Kipp. The Kipps raised their large family in a small house in the small town of Waldorf, Minnesota.

One afternoon Sharon set the house on fire when playing Annie Annie Over — a game of catch played over the roof — with her brother Jim, using sparklers instead of the customary ball. She let her father punish Jim for it and only copped to the crime decades later.

After graduating from the high school across the street from her house, Sharon managed a photo studio in Mankato. She met Ron Hanel at a party his sister threw for him just before he shipped out to Vietnam. They married on May 1, 1971.

In 1974, she became the first and only in her family to move from Minnesota when she took her young family first to Connecticut and then Colorado.

Sharon’s legacy is her tight-knit family, who still gather almost every week at her house. She is survived by her husband of nearly 52 years, Ron; sons Joe, Jeremy and Jeff, and their wives Anna, Chelsey and Nicole; grandchildren Ilan, Aria, Isla, Quinn, Ivy, Charlie, and Esme; six siblings; and more nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews than you can shake a stick at.

Sharon was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Sandra and brothers Larry and Bob.

The family will host a gathering for friends on Thursday, April 27, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Horan & McConaty, 9998 Grant Street, Thornton, CO 80229. The memorial service will be Friday, April 28, at 1 p.m. at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, 12021 Northhaven Circle, Thornton, CO 80241.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Rocky Mountain Lutheran High School Building Fund or the Living Hope Lutheran Church Building Fund, both at 10391 Luther Court, Commerce City, CO 80022.