On Wednesday, May 27th, a shining gem of UAHT, Mr. John Hollis, was honored and celebrated after his decision to retire after his 30+ years of teaching. A retirement reception was held on the aforementioned date at Hempstead Hall. A nice crowd of UAHT faculty and community friends gathered together to honor Mr. Hollis. After enjoying the delightful selection of snacks provided, the crowd was treated with a short recognition of Mr. Hollis’ contributions to the college by Dr. Ricky Tompkins, followed by a wonderful selection of stories and messages of support from UAHT faculty.
To shed light onto his life and his impact on our small town, we decided to do a short interview with Mr. Hollis before the reception:
John Hollis is a native of Camden, Arkansas who spent his younger years living in various communities. He received his college education from Baylor followed by a law degree from the University of Arkansas, coming to Hope in 1989 to work as an attorney for Graves & Graves Law Firm. After a few years in the practice of law, Mr. Hollis was hired as a professor at Red River Vocational Technical School in 1993 under then president Johnny Rapert. He continued to teach until the close of the most recent semester this year.
To end with, we had a few remaining questions for him:
Reporter: When you were younger, did you ever envision being a history teacher?
John: “You know, I really didn’t and I hadn’t even thought about it, although my mother was a history teacher. I did not begin to even think about it until President Rapert called.”
Reporter: Why did you choose to teach history?
John: “Well, the reason that I chose to study and teach history is that I like the subject a lot, and I have always enjoyed studying it.”
Reporter: What is your favorite part about teaching?
John: “My favorite part about it is definitely the interactions with my students. It also helps that I get to teach about subjects that I personally enjoy.”
Reporter: What has your experience teaching at UAHT been like?
John: “I’ve had a very positive experience out here. I’ve got some amazing colleagues that I work with. I’ve also had some really good experiences with my students.”
Reporter: Why do you think history is important?
John: “I believe that history is important because we as people should look back at history to learn from past mistakes, and to hopefully prevent them from happening in our future.”
To conclude, Mr. Hollis shared with us that he has reached retirement age and it is time to let the younger generation with more up to date teaching methods take charge. Although not completely certain on his future activities, he looks forward to being able to pursue house and yard projects, as well as traveling with his wife Kim after she retires.
We salute John Hollis for his avid dedication to the coming generation and for his service to the community. Thank you John!
