Former cop finds true calling as teacher

Monday, April 25, 2016
Mike Hendricks at work in his MCC office. (MCC Photo)

McCOOK, Neb. -- After spending four years in college with no degree, Mike Hendricks returned to his home for the summer but had no job. So his mom decided to help him look. Afterall, she knew a friend who knew a friend who knew a friend of the police chief. Her connections paid off. His first job in the real world was as a police officer with the Tulsa Police Department.

That led him to an interest in political science and eventually as a teacher. On Thursday Hendricks will be honored for a 35-year career in education -- the past 22 at McCook Community College.

He along with colleagues Jim Hall and Jim Garretson will be honored at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center Thursday from 3-5 p.m. Formal comments are set for 3:30 p.m. The public is invited and cake and refreshments will be served.

Hendricks' five years on the police department left him fascinated with the way a city and its government worked. He eventually went to graduate school at Oklahoma State University to become a city manager with a degree in public administration. As part of that curriculum, he found himself teaching a political science class and was hooked.

"From that first day I was just in love with teaching," he said.

From Stillwater he went on to become the Criminal Justice Planning Director in Beloit, Kan. in 1976 and later joined the faculty at Saint Mary of the Plains in Dodge City and used his background to become executive director for "On The Bricks, Inc." a social service agency designed to assist the ex-offender in his transition back into society.

He returned to OSU in 1980 as a graduate research associate and a teaching associate from 1980-1983. He took a position as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Northwestern State University from 1983-1987 and spent two years as adjutant professor of sociology at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Ark.

Then Hendricks left teaching in 1988. He had the chance to be an educational coordinator for a regional mental health center.

"I left teaching because I saw opportunity outside education as a stepping stone," said Hendricks. "It turned out not to be."

He was away from teaching for five years but missed it more with every year that passed. In 1994 he was actively looking for teaching opportunities virtually anywhere and saw an opening in McCook.

He sent in a resume and was eventually hired in a state he'd never even been before. He was just excited to get back into teaching. However, his wife wasn't; she decided to stay in Russellville, Ark.

"My original intention was to take the job, maintain the long-distance relationship and start looking for a better job right away," he said. That was 22 years ago.

He arrived in McCook and something unexpected happened.

"Once I got here, I absolutely loved it," he said. The urgency to quickly find a better job faded. His marriage did, too.

"I'd been married 25 years and all of a sudden I was in a new place, basically a whole new life, and a friend took me to the Elks Lodge and said it was the best way to get to know McCook and its people."

He said while McCook was about the size of Alva., Okla., where he had come from, his connections through the Elks Lodge and later the Heritage Hills Golf Club quickly introduced him to a broad cross-section of the community.

He was also immediately impressed with the quality of students McCook was getting. At MCC he's taught a number of classes over the years including: sociology, social problems, introduction to criminal justice, juvenile delinquency, policing in America, administrative functions, deviant behavior, sociology of sexuality and introduction to corrections.

He was faculty sponsor for Phi theta Kappa, the MCC Student Senate and MCC Criminal Justice Association. He became negotiator for the Mid-Plains Community College Education Association and president of the McCook Community College faculty Association. He was appointed by Governor Mike Johanns to the Region 11 Judicial Nominating Commission.

"My philosophy has always been it's all about the students," he said. "They are the ones who make it interesting and they are the reason I get out of bed in the morning."

Early in his teaching career he wanted to turn every student passionate about whatever he was teaching but soon realized that if you could reach one or two students a class you were doing pretty well. He's proud that two of his former students -- Grant Tiejden and Kayla Sanders -- are now university professors.

"It's been a great ride," he said.

In retirement, he plans to do what he wants when he wants.

Both his sons live in Arkansas and he plans more trips there but will continue to maintain McCook as his home. He's a member of Heritage Hills Golf Course and plans to continue playing as long as he can.

He plans to continue writing his weekly column for the McCook Gazette as he has for the past 18 years. Shortly after arriving in McCook, he hosted a live radio call-in show on KICX called "Mike At Night." He also authored a book "Thoughts About Love, You take My Breath Away," published in 2007.

"I just plan to do what I want to do rather that do what I have to do," he said.

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