The life of a teacher: Dan Hill recounts career roots

It's no secret that many students -- and former students -- of Sweet Springs High School have credited Dan Hill, FFA advisor and agriculture teacher, with helping them be successful in the school's FFA program and in life.

Now in his 30th and last year teaching at the high school, Hill, who was Missouri's vocational teacher of the year in 2007, credits his high school agriculture instructor, Tony Asburry, for his desire to become a teacher.

"I know the impact he had on me, by helping me to set goals and working to achieve them. I knew I wanted to do the same for others. The desire was only strengthened when I did my student teaching under Darrel Strain and Dale Combs at Alton."

Hill grew up in Ripley County, just a quarter-mile north of the Arkansas border and halfway between West Plains and Poplar Bluff.

"We had two buses go by our house -- one for the Arkansas schools and one for Missouri. Hill graduated from Doniphan High School in 1975.

His parents owned a small grocery store "out in the middle of nowhere" much of his early years. They sold gas, livestock feed and groceries. His grandfather farmed nearby in the Ozark foothills, on a farm that was homesteaded by Hill's great-grandfather in 1888.

In 1970, his grandfather died and his father took over the farm, now one of Missouri's Century Farms. "We have the original land grant, signed by President Grover Cleveland."

His FFA supervised agriculture experience (SAE) was cattle, hogs and honeybees. He also hauled "a lot" of small, square bales of hay for his family and neighbors.

Although they didn't have any row crops in their area, he remembers his parents going to pick cotton in the flat ground of the Bootheel and White River bottoms, which were nearby.

After graduating at age 17, he attended Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff for a year or so before finishing up his degree at the University of Missouri-Columbia in July 1978.

"When I first started teaching here, I was 20," said Hill.

One of the reasons Hill, who turned 50 last fall, is retiring is to return to help his parentsnow that they're getting older.

"I left home when I was 17 and haven't been back except to visit 3 or 4 times a year," he said. "They are getting of the age, where I just feel like it's time for me to be down there and provide them with a little more help than they have had."

He doesn't plan on sitting still, however. He will be helping on the family farm where he looks forward to being around the cattle.

"I miss being around and working around the cattle," he said, explaining how much he enjoyed going with his grandfather as a child to "look for newborn baby calves."

He will also be looking for employment, perhaps with the Conservation Department or Department of Natural Resources Historical Preservation division.

"I feel like if I get a 40-hour week job, it will be like working part time," he said, after his long hours as an ag teacher. He has always been interested in conservation and is very interested in history. He enjoys Civil War reenacting in his "spare" time.

Hill and his wife Becky were married in May 1978, just before he started at Sweet Springs. He had met her through one of her friends from Kansas, who had recently moved to the Doniphan area. After Becky received her LPN degree in Kansas City, Kan., she took a job at Rusk Rehabilitation in Columbia at the same time Hill was attending MU.

"We already knew each other a little and her friend kept putting us together," he said.

After almost 31 years of marriage, they have two grown children -- Nick, who lives with his wife in Olathe, Kan., and works for Identix, a digital fingerprinting company and Jake, who lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., with his wife and young daughter. He works for a CBS-affiliate television station in their web page advertising sales department.

Becky has been very involved in helping children, and will continue to work in that area after their move.

"Her life has truly been devoted to helping abused and neglected children," said Hill. She has been on the founding boards of Lighthouse Shelter, the Sweet Springs food pantry and CASA. She also drives a school bus for the Sweet Springs district.

"She will continue to do anything down there that is about helping neglected, abused children or children in need," he said.

Hill credits his family for their support through the years.

"I've been blessed with a wife and sons who sacrificed much so that I could pursue a career I love," he said.

He also was quick to thank the community and the school district for all the support they have given the FFA program through the years.

"I have been extremely fortunate to teach in a community and school system that has been so supportive of the program and what we are trying to accomplish," he said.

His influence on students and the community is sure to be felt for many years. When crediting the current school board for their "great support" he admits he might be a "little" biased.

"Five of the seven on the school board are my former students," he said. "Seven of the seven have either been in, or have had, or will have children in the Sweet Springs agriculture program."

Contact Marcia Gorrell at marshallag@socket.net