Editorial: Farewell to two faithful servants

This week marks the changing of the guard for two local institutions as Donley County Judge Jack Hall caps off 17 years of service and Clarendon School Superintendent Monty Hysinger leaves for new opportunities after 16 years.

Hall spent a full career of about three decades as a coach and teacher at Clarendon Junior High before ever becoming county judge. In fact, he started at CJH the same day the editor’s mother did in the old school building that stood where Kevin and Cheryl Johnson’s home now overlooks the baseball fields. Through the years, they would share many laughs before Hall’s first retirement.

Donley County Commissioners appointed Hall as county judge after W.R. “Billie” Christal resigned in 1997, and it was that same year that representatives of the Texas Courthouse Alliance came to survey the 1890 Donley County Courthouse. It wasn’t clear what, if anything, would come from that visit of folks from Austin, but Hall, your editor, and others were told that a movement was afoot to restore some of Texas’ old courthouses. That was the beginning of a long road to save the Panhandle’s oldest operational courthouse from the verge of condemnation and return it to its 19th century grandeur.

Today, most everyone in Donley County is proud of the courthouse and realizes the value of its restoration… a $4.2 million project that was funded mostly by state money. But that wasn’t the case 14 years ago as many people strongly opposed the project. Judge Jack Hall was steadfast in his dedication to preserve our courthouse and restore it so that generations to come would be able to enjoy it. Asked if it was a good idea or if it would work, Hall always replied, “I just don’t see it any other way.”

Since the project’s completion in 2003, Judge Hall has protected “The Jewel of the Plains” (as Texas Historical Commission member Shirley Caldwell first called it) and given countless tours of the old building, recalling all the unique features, interesting stories, and architectural details of its construction and restoration.

In addition to his role in saving the courthouse, Hall has carried out his duties as judge in the best manner possible. He has conducted commissioners’ court meetings with dignity and decorum and acted in every sense as a gentleman in the performance of his job. Donley County owes a debt of gratitude to Judge Hall. We wish him well in his much deserved second retirement, and we have high expectations for continued leadership and service from his successor, Judge John Howard.

At Clarendon Public Schools, Monty Hysinger has served in his position almost as long as Hall has been judge, and we have always found him to be a good man who has tried to do the best for the students of our district and who stood out for his service to our community.

Through his involvement with the Lions Club, Hysinger has taken an active role in the club’s Sweetheart program and volunteered many, many times to set out or pick up American flags for the club. For many years, Hysinger has almost single-handedly organized the annual Pancake Supper to the point where the rest of the club mostly just had to sell tickets and show up to flip pancakes.

At the school, Hysinger has pushed to keep the most current technology at our children’s and teacher’s fingertips. Soon after her retirement, he drafted the editor’s mother in writing a grant she called “Teaching an Old Town New Tricks” that helped fund a lot of new technology for the school. Since then he has consistently found other opportunities to bring new technology to Clarendon ISD.

Hysinger also has been an excellent steward of the school’s physical plant, undertaking initiatives that have greatly extended the life of a campus that was constructed in 1963 with some buildings dating back even earlier. At a time when some area schools were turning their backs on old buildings, Hysinger was repurposing them and adding decades to their usefulness at a long-term savings to the taxpayer.

Hysinger also is to be commended for his leadership in reworking the school’s old tornado shelter. The 1960s “bomb shelter” under the cafeteria and library had been used for decades for tornado drills but had fallen out of use by the turn of the century due to concerns mainly over dust. Hysinger had the floor concreted, had emergency lights installed, and instituted a tornado plan under which all CISD students can get to cover in about five minutes.

Dumas ISD is getting a good man and a good leader in Monty Hysinger, and we hope that whoever succeeds him can build on the foundations that he has laid for our school.

Meanwhile…

Our hearts and prayers go out this week to the family of Patrick Robertson, a man who touched so many and served us all whether it was as a fireman, a paramedic, a funeral director, a radio personality, or a friend. No father should have to bury his son, and there is never a good time for a son to lose his father. Our greatest sympathies to Delbert, Chuck, Vicky, Debbie, and the rest of the family. Our community will miss Pat greatly, and we hope that his loved ones can find comfort in the love and friendship of others in the days to come.