Cleo Greer Hogan, age 80, of Clarksville TN, passed away Saturday August 22, 2026, peacefully with his family by his side.

A Celebration of Life service will be held in his honor at 2:00 PM on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at McReynolds-Nave & Larson Funeral Home, with Rev. Gary White officiating. The Hogan family will receive friends from 4-7 PM on Friday September 4, 2026, and again on Saturday from 12:00 PM until the hour of the service at the funeral home.

Air Force Honors are to be held at the funeral home.

Cleo will be laid to rest at the Hogan Family Cemetery in a private ceremony, at a later date.

Cleo was born March 31, 1946, in Clarksville TN, to the late Byron Gordon Hogan and Latha Haynes Hogan. He was raised on the family farm and did not have running water or electricity until his brother installed electricity in 1960, when Cleo began high school at Clarksville High School. His love of history and genealogy was peaked when his uncle Alexander Hogan began his rare visits to the farm and thus began Cleo’s endless interviews of his elders. At age 17, he began to drive and expanded his interviews to Port Royal, Indian Mound, and Mayfield and Wickliffe, KY. In 1964, he joined the Montgomery County Historical Society. He then went on to be the first in his family to attend college, and graduated from Austin Peay State University in 1968 with a degree in mathematics and physics. Shortly after, he bravely served his country in the United States Air Force where he served as a weather broadcaster at many duty stations. He received the U.S. Army Commendation medal for his service in Fort Knox.

Cleo and his wife Donna Hogan, married in 1976, and moved to North Carolina where he began his position as meteorologist at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville. While in Asheville, their daughter Melissa was born in 1982. After returning to Tennessee and receiving his law degree from Memphis State University Law School, he moved back to Clarksville and began his work as a junior partner in a law firm eventually known as Rudolph, Ross, Fendley and Hogan. In his spare time, he continued his genealogy interviews by phone and went to “lost” family cemeteries, mapping them out by sketching the graves on paper and copying the stone engravings using rolls of unprinted newspaper, crayons, and even flour. His daughter Melissa often joined him on these adventures and has many fond memories of this time. As a result, he published books that have aided others in their own family research for years.

Throughout his life, he was active in many organizations including, but not limited to, and in no particular order; Mensa, Kentucky Universalist Convention, Unitarian Universalist Church Hopkinsville KY, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Clarksville TN, World Families Hogan DNA Project, Pennington Research Association, Association for Gravestone Studies, USAF Air Weather Association, American Meteorological Society, Eastern Nebraska Genealogical Society, West Virginia Historical Society, West Virginia Historical & Genealogical Association,Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Historical Foundation of Hillsborough and Orange County NC, Durham-Orange NC Geneological Society, Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society, Asheville Camp 15 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Montgomery County Historical Society, Cheatham County Historical Society, Stewart County Historical Society, Sons of the American Revolution, General Society of the War of 1812, General Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Military Order of the Stars and Bars, Jamestowne Society, Sons and Daughters of Antebellum Planters, The Sons and Daughters of the Colonial and Antebellum Bench and Bar 1565—1861, The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Morgan’s Men’s Association, Early Day Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Montgomery County Antique Tractor and Engine Club, Tennessee Kentucky Thresherman’s Association, Board of Trustees for Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library, TN Regional Historic Zoning Commission, Tennessee Bar Association, and Montgomery County Bar Association.

He was an avid fan of antique farm equipment, often admiring and exhibiting his extensive tractor collection, and his 1933 Chevrolet Truck.

He is survived by his loving wife; Donna Hogan as well as their daughter; Melissa (Gary) Santora, his brother; Horace (Edith) Hogan; nieces Debbie (Roger) Teague and Linda (Larry) Griffith, and many loving cousins both local and all across the globe.

A special thank you to his caregiver and long time friend Bill Zarella, wife Wanda, and daughter Emma.

Cleo G. Hogan was a man who knew more dead people than living, loved a good plate of southern home cooking, couldn’t pass up tractor sales, and loved all things relating to history, especially family history. He often would ask strangers who their parents were and had a habit of starting genealogy charts for everyone he met.

A quote Cleo enjoyed…

“There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.”

― David M. Eagleman, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

Arrangements are in the care of McReynolds-Nave & Larson Funeral Home. Online condolences may be left at navefuneralhomes.com