Cover Story
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Story by Bailey Hemphill. Photos by minorwhitestudios.com
John L. Hoich Center for Recovery Stephen Center Facility Offers Second Chance at Life
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John Hoich (L) with Del Bomberger, Stephen Center CEO. www.ReadOnlineNow.com
n the early 1920s, a bar called The First and Last Chance occupied the space between 27th and Q streets. The owner of the bar was a severe alcoholic whose drinking eventually bankrupted his family in 1968, precipitating a difficult life of welfare and food stamps for his wife, his four daughters, and his two sons. Eldest son John L. Hoich recalls the damage his father’s drinking and abusive behavior did to his family, resulting in his parents’ divorce and his mother’s death at age 39. Naturally, it saddened Hoich to see his father’s bar, a remnant of his tumultuous childhood, continuing its alcohol legacy through the changing of hands. But then, a little more than 80 years after Hoich’s father’s bar opened, something good happened. The bar, last known as The South Seven, was demolished. “I’ve been on the Omaha Planning Board for the past 14 years,” says Hoich. “When Del Bomberger and the Stephen Center staff came to the board to tear down the bar to build a recovery center for the HERO program, I started tearing up.” Hoich was extremely moved by the request, for it would be the end of a bar that had for>> march/april • 2012
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