Longtime NPC faculty member retires after 45 years

Joan Henry poses with her plaque Thursday, May 9, 2019. Henry is retiring from teaching at NPC after 45 years. (The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen)
Joan Henry poses with her plaque Thursday, May 9, 2019. Henry is retiring from teaching at NPC after 45 years. (The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen)

After 45 years, Joan Henry finished her last semester teaching at National Park College.

The longtime faculty member came to Hot Springs to student teach in 1964, according to a news release. She took her first teaching job in Malvern at Wilson High School, before the integration of the Malvern School District. Wilson High School was required to integrate with Malvern High School in 1969.

"I was selected to integrate the faculty at Malvern Junior High School," Henry said in the release, recalling the memories of an assistant superintendent observing her class before selecting her for the role.

Henry later accepted a teaching position at Southwest Junior High School in Hot Springs and joined the faculty at then-Garland County Community College in February 1974, shortly after the college opened in August 1973.

Construction of NPC's current campus got underway in 1975, and before moving to campus in 1976, offices and classrooms were established in St. Gabriel's School at 220 Silver St.

They later moved to the First Federal Building at Central and Bridge Street, and the First Methodist Church at Central and Orange Street.

"We were all over the place," Henry said. "It was hard to keep up with us."

Henry said it was Trustee Don Harris who advocated for office spaces for faculty at the newly built campus.

Henry said she believes the college has grown for the better over time.

"Everything changes in our lifetime," she said in the release. "I embrace change, myself. I love it."

One hope she said she has for the college's future is a theater, because "there are still some powerful messages to be learned through the arts."

Roger Fox, communications and arts division chair, is a former student of Henry's, and noted he still uses things he learned in her class every day when he teaches literature.

"It's sort of the end of an era because Joan was one of the earliest faculty members to be brought in to our department," he told The Sentinel-Record. "I hope she has a very long and wonderful retirement; she deserves it. She's spent the greater part of her life giving to others in an educational environment, and higher education at that.

"I just wish her well. I hope she gets to spend a great deal of time with her children and grandchildren. We've had many, many fond memories working together. Joan is a very vibrant person."

NPC Dean of Students John Tucker was Henry's former student.

"I entered college as a nontraditional, undecided, veteran student," Tucker said in the release. "Joan Henry, through her dynamic and thought-provoking lectures, made me want to teach English. She has a way of bringing alive literature's words, themes, and characters.

"I remember leaving her classroom and thinking, 'That is what I want to do!' It is hard to imagine the number of students she has inspired to read more, write more, and learn more. It is also hard to imagine National Park College without her."

Henry comes from a long line of educators. She grew up and graduated high school in Newport.

"My mother was my first teacher," Henry said in the release, proudly explaining that her mother attended summer school to become a teacher. Her grandfather was also a teacher, she said.

"I am so proud of them," she said.

Henry said in the release her parents had to attend high school away from home as the segregated schools in most communities ended after eighth grade. Only a small number of African-American high schools were available across the state at the time. Her father went on to complete a master's degree. The NPC Library has a book about her mother's family titled, "The Seed of Sally Good'n, a book about the Polk family from Howard County."

Henry said she is most proud of all that she has learned during her years in education.

"I learned a lot and I am going to continue to learn, but I am going to try to learn more about the Bible," she said. Henry plans to join her Bible class and exercise more. She said she wants to "just be healthy and have fun, and enjoy more of life.

"My mother told me, 'Don't wait until you retire to do anything. You travel as you go,'" she said.

Henry said she will miss her colleagues and students the most. Concluding her tenure, Henry offered some parting advice for her students.

"You need to take advantage of it now," she said in the release. "You need to take your education into your own hands. Look at your grades. Check your absences. Use everything you can find to succeed."

Local on 05/12/2019

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