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Mike Hesse

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Graveside funeral services for Mike Hesse, 85-year-old former Buffalo resident who died suddenly at his home in Winter Haven, Florida on June 04, 2023, will be held Saturday, September 28th at 11:00 am in Willow Grove Cemetery. Online condolences may be made at www.harnessfuneralhome.com.

Michael George Samuel Hesse, “Mike” to all who knew him, died suddenly at his home June 4th, 2023.

Mike was a storyteller, guitar player, and gentleman philosopher. Behind his twinkling eye and playful nature, lay an inquisitive man, quietly struggling to uncover life’s ultimate truths.

Born on the 21st of August 1939, on the historic 28 Ranch outside of Buffalo, Wyoming, Mike was the last surviving child of George and Grace Hesse. Although he left Wyoming at a young age, his spirit was forever tied to its towering mountains and endless seas of grass. While his family moved to Montana, South Dakota, Arizona, and New Mexico, they eventually settled in New Jersey where Mike graduated from High School.

Mike would go on to graduate from the University of Arizona after some misadventures at Sewanee that were never fully explained. Afterward, he married Elizabeth Richards and proceeded to journey back across the country, where they settled in the San Francisco East Bay. There he and Elizabeth had two children, Michael, and Jennifer, while Mike built a successful career in Real Estate.

Later he moved to Denver, Colorado, where he opened his commercial real estate firm, Unique Properties and helped raise his stepson, Payton Knopf. Denver provided him with access to Wyoming that he had yearned for throughout his life. For more than a decade, he would drive north to wander its lonely spaces, returning again and again to his childhood home. Eventually, he was forced to move to Winter Haven, Florida, due to his failing health. There he spent his final years with his son, Michael, and his daughter-in-law, Teryl Hesse. Mike is survived by his children, Michael and Jennifer, his stepson Payton, and seven grandchildren: Michael, Rain, Isabella, Merrick, Lane, Mason, and Whitney, as well as four great-grandchildren, Aileen, Cassidy, Winter, and Wyatt.

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