Richard R. Hoopes, Retired NHS Guidance

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Dillsburg Banner - Section C
LifeStyles
SECTION C G THE DILLSBURG BANNER G APRIL 11, 2013
Northern High School Alumni
Where Are They Now?
Richard R. Hoopes - Retired NHS Guidance Counselor
Teacher, counselor,
hunter, fisherman
By Steven M. Nesbit
Feature
Writer/Dillsburg Banner
___________________________
When you think of a
high school guidance counselor, what comes to mind?
Maybe elk hunting in Colorado? How about white
water rafting in West Virginia? Or deer hunting in
Alabama? Don’t forget
deep-sea fishing and bear
hunting? Any of those?
Didn’t think so.
On October 21, 1926,
Richard R. Hoopes was
born in Dillsburg the son of
Raymond
and
Betty
(Bessie) Hoopes.
Two
years later, his brother
Lester Eugene, nicknamed
Buddy, was born, and about
12 years later, sister Barbara was born.
At some point the family moved to Franklintown,
and Richard started school
at Franklintown Elementary School. Mr. Coulson
was his teacher. “I honestly don’t remember too
many details of my early
years except that we were
very poor. We never went
hungry, but many of our
meals were in one small
dish. I remember that on
Christmas we would get
one gift, and if we got an
orange and a small box of
candy that was quite a
treat,” said Hoopes. “I remember one year I got a
flashlight and was really
tickled about it. Another
year, I got a football. I went
outside and kicked it up in
the air and it landed in a
tree and burst. The story I
remember the most as a
kid, is that I got a tool box,
and my father needed it to
let the water out of his vehicles, so he borrowed my
pliers and he broke my pliers. Of course, they were
never replaced.”
When Mr. Hoopes was
12 his father died of a massive heart attack. His dad
was only 32 years old.
“My mother couldn’t keep
us together because there
was just no money. At that
time, we had a nine-month-
old baby sister named Barbara, and the Elmer Haar
family took her in while
Buddy and I went to live
with our grandparents.”
His grandparents had a
small farm and owned
Rest-A-While Inn located
along Route 15 south of
Dillsburg. “My mother
went to live with her sister
in York where she was able
to get a job in a factory. My
grandmother died shortly
after we moved in.” Buddy
was then sent to York to
live with his mother, and
Richard went to live with
his uncle and aunt Russell
Harbold on a farm below
Franklintown.
Richard (Dick) Hoopes
went to Dillsburg High
School. “I don’t think I
was a particularly good student, but I got by, and my
favorite subject was math.”
One of the girls in his class
said that she can’t believe
he became a math teacher
because the girls always did
his work for him. The lowest grade on his report card
was “probably a C; I don’t
remember any D’s.” He
did remember one incident
that nearly got him expelled. “A boy came into
the hall with a snake in his
hand, and he threw it under
the door into a classroom. I
just stood there and
watched what would happen. Well, I got the blame
for doing it.” Finally, the
other guy confessed that he
was the culprit who tossed
the snake, and Hoopes was
able to stay in school. At
some point, his mother remarried and Buddy, Barbara and Richard were finally reunited together under one roof again.
As a teenager, Hoopes
loved to hunt groundhogs.
“I always like to hunt, and I
trapped muskrats and
skunks. I had to stop trapping skunks because that
was not always a nice experience,” he said laughing.
In high school, he played
baseball and soccer.
When Dick was a sen-
Playing 20 Questions with
Richard R. Hoopes - Class of '44
1. What is the best advice you ever received? Get
an education.
2. What's it take to be successful as a counselor?
Involvement with the students, the faculty, the
parents, and the administration.
3. What is your favorite family tradition? Thanksgiving dinner.
4. How do you define success? Contentment
within yourself.
5. What's the best way to get on your good side?
I didn't know I had a bad side.
6. If you could spend one day with anybody who
would it be? Ralph Clark, my best friend.
7. Your favorite restaurant? After church, we eat
at the Colony House in Mechanicsburg and
also like the Olive Garden.
8. What makes you laugh? A good joke.
9. Name a few of your heroes. Theodore Roosevelt and Joe Lewis, the boxer.
10. What's your idea of relaxation? Every night at
eight o'clock we watch cowboy movies.
11. Are you a sports fan? I enjoy watching football.
12. What is your passion? My passion was always hunting.
13. Any pet peeves? Loud people.
14. Advice to today's generation? Don't quit. You
can succeed if you keep at it. And make sure to
enjoy yourself.
______________________
See Playing 20 Questions. 2C
ior, a recruiter came in and room school, Andersontalked about a program town in Monaghan Townwhere students could go to ship. Thus, began his
college and when the mili- teaching career in a onetary decided to call up the room schoolhouse.
recruits to active duty, they
It was an eye-opening
would have to go. He experience that first year
joined the Army Air Corps for Hoopes. “I was not
(now Air Force) Ready Re- only a teacher, but also, a
serves right after gradua- custodian, an arbitrator, a
tion in 1944. “I went to the referee that broke up fights
University of Pittsburgh on the playground, and a
and had just completed my counselor who wiped the
freshman year when I was tears off little first-graders
called to active duty.” He who wanted their mommy.
was sent to an air base in Trust me when I say there
Texas and then to Fort were no family secrets. I
Collins, Colorado. That heard it all,” he recalled.
Fall, he was told to pack; he During the cold months, he
was going to Occupied would go up to the school
Japan. “When we got to the on Sunday afternoons and
railway station, we were start a big fire in the old
told to go home. The war coal burning stove so that it
was over and that ended my would be warm when the
military career. I hitch- kids showed up Monday
hiked home from Col- morning. “It was an expeorado.” Tragedy struck the rience that I would never
family again. No sooner have traded,” he added.
did he get home when his
At the end of the year,
16 year old brother Buddy there was an opening for
died of a heart attack. Mr. Hoopes at the Dillsburg
“That was just terrible for High School. At that time,
all of us, especially my they had three children,
mother,” he said.
Kathleen (Kitty), Rick and
Mr. Hoopes started Tom. The family moved to
looking for a college to Mountain Road just a mile
continue his education in from where they live now.
engineering, but he could At this point of his career,
not find a school anywhere he was working with teachthat was not filled with GIs ers who taught him. He rethat had been discharged calls Rev. Kaup and Mr.
earlier when the war ended. Spoerlein. “I was there un“I remembered a pact I til February of 1952, then
made with Buddy about we moved into the new
helping young people. I be- high school. I spent 12
came a Boy Scout leader years teaching math classand went to work at the es, and then a new position
Naval Supply Depot in Me- was created, the Home and
chanicsburg, Pa.” Richard School Liaison, and I acgot married and at the ad- cepted the position.” This
vice of his mother-in-law, _____________________
he enrolled in Elizabeth- See Where are they now. 2C
town College to prepare for
a teaching career. It was
not easy by any means according to Dick. “I remember it was the last semester
of my senior year when the
G.I. bill ran out. I needed to
get cash for my last semester. My grandfather gave
me the $300 that I needed,
and I graduated in June of
1950 from Elizabethtown
College. He was so proud
of me. I was the first in the
family to go to college.”
Hoopes did his practice
teaching at Derry Township
schools, and then he was
told that he did have a job.
He would teach in a one-
Filey’s Parish comes home
ily available space and the
ability for her congregation
to worship when they wanted was what made the
Springtime is a time for
meeting house the perfect
rebirth; old becomes new
fit and it had stayed ever
again. That is why this seasince.
son is particularly appropriHowever, the goal was
ate for the journey taken by
always to return home. The
members
of
Christ
church officials knew that it
Lutheran Church, Filey’s
would be a costly endeavor.
Parish. After a tragic loss
The church building had
of their old building more
been old, and there was a
than two and a half years
limit to how much insurago, the church stands
ance they could get on it.
anew and the first of its regThe community helped
where they could with the
cost. Some of the fundraisers included concerts and
other benefit programs.
“There have been so
many generous people that
have helped us along the
way and we thank them
all,” said Dottie Shultz of
the church’s fellowship
committee.
Construction of the
building had been underway for the better part of
the past year. The new
church sits on the same
grounds as the old one, but
was moved slightly so it
sits closer to the corner of
Filey’s and Siddonsburg
A peak inside the new church. The church has about 10 rooms, Roads for better visibility.
including a sanctuary, sacristy, offices, narthex, kitchen and a multi- The eciGroup of Dillsburg
with Bill Eichelberger at
room education wing.
the helm were the primary
Erica Smithson
Staff Reporter/Dillsburg Banner
______________________________
ular Sunday services was
celebrated on Easter.
On August 12, 2010,
the Filey’s church building
was destroyed by a fire
caused by a lightning
storm. What seemed like a
total loss at the time proved
not to be: the outpouring of
support from other churches and local communities to
the congregation, led by
Pastor Debbie Mahady,
was immediate.
Plans to rebuild Filey’s
were considered right
away, but the congregation
needed a temporary home
so they could still worship
and settle down a bit after
the fire. After many offers
from different pastors and
congregations to worship in
their spaces, Mahady chose
Barren’s Meeting House,
the fellowship hall beside
Barren’s United Lutheran
Church on Kralltown Road
in Dillsburg as the parish’s
temporary home. The read-
Photos by Curt Werner/Dillsburg Banner
After a tragic loss of their old building
more than two and a half years ago, Christ
Lutheran Church, Filey’s Parish stands anew
and the first of its regular Sunday services
was celebrated on Easter.
design builder/contractors.
“We would like to
acknowledge them for all
of their help,” said Mahady.
“They spent a lot of hours
with us and they were very
patient and accommodating.”
The church has about
10 rooms, including a sanctuary, sacristy, offices,
narthex, kitchen and a
multi-room education wing
for the church’s nursery
school and daycare pro-
grams. Some of the initial
plans had to be scaled back
a bit because of affordability reasons; namely the ability to extend on both sides
of the building. However,
because the original plan
was done with both expansions in mind, they are
available to add on in the
future, says the church
council president Al Myers.
All they would need is a
See Filey’s. 5C
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THE DILLSBURG BANNER • APRIL 11, 2013 • PAGE 2C
When the Early Bird
Should Sleep In
Gardening column by
Margaret
Stoddard
__________________
Feature Writer
The early bird catches
the worm, right? So getting
into your garden and working the soil early must be a
good thing. Or not.
If your soil is too wet,
as soils often are in early
spring, working the soil
could prove harmful.
Digging, turning over, or
tilling wet soil causes soil
particles to clump together
and reduces the pore space
between soil particles. That
is a bad thing because pore
space, the open spaces
between the soil particles,
holds air, water, and organic matter. According to
Penn State, about 50 percent of the total soil volume
of a good loam soil may be
made up of pore space. A
plant's roots grow in that
pore space and a plentiful
supply of water and air conveniently located next door
makes for happy roots and
happy plants.
The remainder of the
soil is made up of about 45
percent minerals, the actual
soil particles, and about 5
percent organic matter.
Organic matter is decaying
or decayed animal and
plant matter and soil organisms, most of them too
small to be seen without a
microscope. So pore space,
which holds copious
amounts of air and water, is
a very important part of
soil.
To visualize pore space:
imagine a jar of marbles.
The jar is full of marbles,
but it is also full of air that
fills all those nooks and
crannies that the round
marbles don't fill. In the
spring when the soil is still
wet, that pore space also
holds quite a bit of water.
You remember from
your childhood what you
get if you mix soil, water,
and a trowel - mud! While
mud may be nice for mudpies and mud-bogging, it is
not so nice for plants. In
fact, plants really don't like
to grow in mud (things like
rice and cattails excepted,
of course), because their
roots have trouble extracting nutrients from the soil if
the soil is waterlogged. I
recall one summer when a
particularly rainy spate in
July caused our tomato
plants to go limp. They
looked as if they were wilting, but it wasn't a lack of
water that was the problem.
It was too much.
To understand this better, imagine a big bowl of
well-crumbled
cake
crumbs. (Chocolate is my
favorite and appropriate to
represent soil.) A soil with
a cake-crumb texture is
actually ideal for gardening
soil because the soil is light
and fluffy. All that space
between the crumbs is pore
space: where the water, air,
and nutrients are stored
within easy reach of the
plants roots. If we crush
those cake crumbs together
tightly and make a pancake
out of them, we have eliminated the pore space. There
is no longer a place for
roots to grow or water and
air to be stored.
Now imagine that we
pour water into the bowl.
There goes light and fluffy.
What if we take a wooden
spoon and mix it all together really vigorously like a
rototiller, we end up with a
slurry or a paste of cake
crumbs that does not at all
resemble the light and
fluffy crumbs we started
with. Where would the air
be stored in this mixture?
To prevent working soil
too early, the wise, and
patient, gardener tests the
soil to determine if it is dry
enough to work. A simple
test will tell you if it's time
to get out the tiller. Take a
handful of soil; squeeze it
into a ball. Now drop it
onto the ground from about
chest high. If it remains
intact, the soil is too wet. If
it breaks in half, the soil is
still too wet. If the ball
crumbles apart, pull out the
tiller, wield the trowel.
Perform this test frequently
in the early spring to determine the optimal time to
work the soil.
Many an eager gardener
has rushed to work overlywet soil, only to wonder
later why the garden
seemed to languish. Even
walking or driving equipment over soil that is wet
can ruin pore space by
squeezing out air and pushing the soil particles closer
together, which is known as
soil compaction. Plants
grown in compacted soils
produce less roots because
the roots have difficulty
penetrating the closely-
Here is the correct consistency of soil. According to Penn State,
about 50 percent of the total soil volume of a good loam soil may be
made up of pore space. So, before you grab your trowel and tiller, test
if your soil is ready to be worked.
packed soil. In addition, soil, so they can pack Apply some heat and you
compacted soils hold less together more closely than have a nice hard pot or
oxygen, which is necessary sand or silt particles which brick. Not so great if the
for root growth. If you are larger. When wet, the clay is in your garden: in
must get into a garden bed molecules in clay pack so the heat of summer you end
before the soil is sufficient- closely that there is very lit- up with a soil that cracks
ly dry, place a board on the tle pore space.
and is as hard as a brick.
soil and walk on the board.
That is what makes clay Unfortunately, clay soils
If the soil has a high good for making pottery that are compacted by
proportion of clay, working and bricks: the particles can being worked when too wet
while too wet can be disas- be packed so closely do not easily recover. A fair
trous. Clay particles are the together that they make a amount of work, organic
smallest particles present in fairly solid structure. matter, and time will be
required to restore a good
workable soil structure.
Master Gardener Nancy
Bellaire says organic matter
Not sure what soil texture you have? Soil texture is determined by the percentage of different-sized particles
is the cure-all for all types
(clay, silt, and sand) present. To get a quick estimation of what type of soil you have, try this simple test.
of soil problems, from
sandy soil that drains too
quickly to waterlogged clay
that never does. If your soil
4. The
is still too wet to work, you
length of
can topdress with organic
the ribbon
matter, such as composted
formed
manure or leaf mold, and
will tell
you the
allow earthworms to work
soil texit into the soil, until the soil
ture.
has dried enough for you to
give the worms a hand.
1. Take a handful of soil. 2. Push the soil between
3. Keep squeezing until
So, before you grab
Pick out any stones, debris, your thumb and forefinger
the ribbon breaks. Make
or critters. Roll the soil into a to form a ribbon 1/8" thick.
your trowel and tiller, test if
several ribbons and measball. If it is too dry to have a
your soil is ready to be
ure their length.
putty-like texture, add a little
worked.
Sandy, Clayey, Loamy?
bit of water.
Where are
they now?
Continued from page 1C.
job was a real eye-opener
for Mr. Hoopes. He got to
see both sides of a student’s
life, their home life and
their school life. “There
were court cases that were
unbelievable,” he said. He
was working on his Master’s degree in counseling
at Shippensburg and finished his Master’s in 1967.
He was offered a position
as a guidance counselor at
Northern.
“I spent 21
years in that position, and
the only downside was with
the parents who thought
that I was available 24
hours a day. I would get
calls any time of the day,
even at 2:00 am in the
morning asking where their
child might be. I couldn’t
seem to get through to
some parents that I did not
give the failing grades, I
only send out the letters. It
got so bad that we had to
get an unlisted telephone
number.”
While he was teaching,
he also worked part-time as
a meat cutter at Evan’s
store, and he painted houses in the summer. “My
wife and I had made a
promise that we would not
borrow money to put our
kids through college. Lois
went to work when Tom
was five years old, and together we achieved the
dream of having our own
home,” he said. They
bought land in 1955 and
built the house they live in
today, and their three children got college educations
without taking out any
loans.
Counseling was always
very interesting. Lois told
a humorous story. Their
son Tom was trying to get
into college, so he went to
the guidance office and
asked, “I want to make an
appointment to see my
Franklintown Elementary School, 1931. Richard Hoopes is the second from right, front row.
dad.” The secretary said,
“You don’t need an appointment. You can see
him at home.” When he
got home he told his mom
what happened. She said
that he was so upset. He
told her, “My grades are at
school, not here at home.”
Lois asked if she should
call the school, and Tom
said, “No, I’ll take care of
it.” And he did.
Mr. Hoopes said, “I retired in 1968 after 36 years
in the public schools. It
was great experience.”
One day the school called
and asked if he would substitute for a day. At the end
of the day, he asked the
school not to call him
again. “I couldn’t believe
how much student behavior
and attitudes had changed
since I was in the classroom,” he said. “That’s
when I started a painting
business and had more
work than I could handle.”
During their marriage, Mr.
and Mrs. Hoopes had several gardens and raised lots
of vegetables.
After his wife retired,
she felt they were not having enough fun.
Mr.
Hoopes said, “I quit painting, and we started playing
more golf; and I did more
hunting and fishing, too.”
While he was still in education, Richard and his sons
helped his best friend
Ralph Clark build a cabin
in Centre County. “Even
though Ralph is gone,” he
said, “my sons and I spend
as much time as we can up
at the cabin”.
In 1988, Hoopes had a
heart attack and by-pass
surgery. “When I asked the
surgeon two months after
surgery if I could go deer
hunting, she gave me permission. Then I decided to
work on my bucket list”.
Some of Rick’s friends decided it would be great fun
to go to Colorado elk hunting and Mr. Hoopes went
along. In fact, they went
for a few years. In order to
prepare that trip, Hoopes
filled his backpack with the
necessary gear which
weighed about 40 pounds,
and decided to get in shape
by walking the roads
around his home. “I even
climbed the mountain back
of our house.” he said, “and
that was tough.”
Some of the State police
that Mr. Hoopes knew at
Carlisle thought he should
go along white water rafting in West Virginia. “I did,
and I even fell overboard
and had to be rescued by
my next-door neighbor
Rick Gingerich.” He went
deer hunting in Alabama
for several years, and he,
along with friends and his
son Rick, went bear hunting and he shot a bear.
There were trips deep-sea
fishing, and, “my wife and
I visited Europe and
Africa” They also took
several cruises, and even
went steam boating on the
mighty Mississippi. In
1999, he developed more
health issues, and in October of 2000, Mr. Hoopes
had a stroke that really
slowed him down.
"I'm still a member of
the Lions Club, and I do re-
member walking through
Dillsburg selling balloons
during Farmer's Fair in
2005. My sons still take
me out to the cabin several
times a year, and every year
we try to get to the Outer
Banks in North Carolina.
Today, I am content to read
a good novel and watch the
birds through my window.
I will be 87 in October, and
I plan to be around for
many more birthdays. "My
children tease me that I will
live longer than Uncle
Herm. He was my great
uncle Herman Linebaugh
of Rossville, and he lived to
be over 100 years old,"
smiled Mr. Hoopes.
Playing 20 Questions
Continued from 1C
15. What makes you cry? Saying goodbye to
the grandchildren.
16. Something that people would be surprised to
know about you? Not many people know I do
needlework. Many of my afghans won prizes
at Farmers Fair.
17. Have a favorite book? Westerns written by
Louis L'Amour.
18. What's your comfort food? Ice Cream.
19. What's your biggest accomplishment? My
teaching career and my family.
20. A quote to live by? Live your life by what
you believe in.