Page 32 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Winter 2021 - Online Magazine
P. 32
Exceptional
SENIORS
Jane A. Hodges, Ph.D. houses in Amarillo for returning
WWII veterans; Hodges Street is
named after him. He received a
Pioneering degree from UNM at the age of 100,
but that is a story for a lengthier
article. Her mother, Thelma,
Aerospace Educator invested many volunteer hours in
the community, notably the Art
as told to Jane Bromley Alliance. Jane’s brother John, a
Vietnam era veteran, passed away
in 2013, and her brother Tom calls
somehow Durango, CO, home.
lived multiple Jane attended Coronado
lifetimes Elementary, Austin Jr. High, and
in her few Amarillo High School. She has
decades on always followed her curiosity, and
the planet. it has led to places she could not
The National have imagined. “Daddy always
Space Club took us on trips, but I never
Florida expected to have this life,” she says
Committee is about the things she’s seen and the
a non-profit places she’s been.
corporation Her 6th grade Girl Scout Leader,
whose Mrs. McCracken, taught her troop
mission is a hula lesson, which planted a
to increase seed of curiosity about Hawaii.
public That led to Jane's first job as an
awareness elementary school teacher in the
of America’s Aloha State, which led to a chance
aerospace meeting with President Nixon, who
programs. invited Jane to witness the return
Jane is the of the astronauts of Apollo 13. She
first female was so inspired, she enrolled in an
to receive the aerospace class and became a Civil
prestigious Air Patrol (CAP) Search and Rescue
award, and pilot.
it is only
the latest in The lifelong learner couldn't help
a long list but share her new passion with
marillo native Jane Hodges
was recently awarded the of accolades that includes state, her students, so she set up a Space
ANational Space Club Florida national, and international Learning Center in her classroom,
Committee’s Lifetime Achievement recognition in education, especially filled with information about space
Award for 2021, but if you try and aerospace education. and flight. They were hooked, and
divide the number of achievements Jane Hodges has deep roots in the so was she.
by the years in her life, you might Panhandle. Her father John was a Jane returned to Texas and earned
be led to wonder if Dr. Hodges has home builder who built dozens of her Master’s in Education from
32 Amarillo Senior Link
