Pictured are students who wore their Science Superstar shirts to school the day after Mike died to honor him. The top left is Julianna Sylestine from community, top right from St Mary Matthew Erb, Adrian Willingham, Logan Russell and Kylie Braquet. Bottom far left is Ashley Romero of Orangefield. Next to her is Molly Abshire. LCJH bottom right. Top row Robert Simpson, Amber Lester, Darby Watson, Ashley boze, Elizabeth johns, Shelby Smith, Chelsea Perry, bottom row Karly Rae, Jenna McCorvy, Jenna Garrison, Makayla Kusek.
When Stephen Patterson was a 12-year-old kid in junior high, he heard a “big loud voice in the hallway that was welcoming, that was exciting.” The man behind the voice became his mentor, later his supervisor and friend. Science teacher Michael Hoke died unexpectedly Wednesday afternoon. News of his death spread faster than the morning temperatures in the desert floor of Big Bend National Park.
Today, Patterson has a doctorate degree and is superintendent of the Orangefield Independent School District. Patterson, like hundreds of other students, traveled with Hoke in the teacher’s private educational camping program called “Bios, a School on Wheels.” The students on the trip traveled across Texas, focusing on Big Bend National Park. Veterans of the Texas trip were allowed to go on a trip to Colorado.
Patterson said he went on at least five Bios trips as a student in the program or as a counselor. He still remembers names of flowers and birds. As a student, he went with Hoke to sanctuaries in High Island and Anahuac.
“He had a passion for kids and learning,” Patterson said. “There’re not a lot of educators out there that have the type of commitment that Mike Hoke did.”
Krispen Walker is an assistant district attorney for Orange County. She, too, was a Hoke student and traveled with Bios. Her earliest memories of Hoke are with him as her bus driver. On cold, windy mornings he would open the bus door for her and as she climbed the steps he sang “We’ve having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave.”
She recalls going for outdoor experiments in the gully behind North Junior High or shooting a rocket on the nearby field. He took kids “out of the classroom and on adventures.”
She never saw Hoke angry or heard him raise his voice to should. “He had a presence to him that kids respected.”
Tribute comments about Hoke have been made on kogt.com and through Facebook. His former students, colleagues and friends live around the world.
Stephen Lee is another one of Hoke’s former students who returned to Orange after earning college degrees. Lee is now president and CEO of First Financial Bank in Orange. On Facebook Wednesday he wrote: Hoke “was a blessing to his family, students, community and the profession he loved. This community lost a cherished asset today who touched many lives including my own. Prayers to all of those mourning his loss today.”
James Morris, a Beaumont lawyer, wrote: “In eighth grade, Mr. Hoke threw erasers at me one day because I wouldn’t stop talking, imagine that. On another occasion, because of my continued talking he took me in to the back closet and handed me a stack of folded up cardboard. He said ‘Jimmy, put this in your back pocket. I’m going to hit it with the paddle and I need you to cry out each time I hit it.’ No pain obviously.
You should have seen the faces of my classmates. He was a wonderful teacher and it was my favorite class at North. What a man and what a loss. Our sincere condolences are with you.”
Walter G. Riedel III, president and CEO of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation issued a statement: “My colleagues and I were deeply saddened to learn late yesterday of the death of Michael Hoke. As the first director of Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center, Mike was extremely instrumental in not only the planning and development of the Gardens, but also in presenting to the Foundation’s Board of Directors the initial concept of a restored Shangri La.
“His contributions to Shangri La Gardens were numerous, but none was more important than the emphasis on education. Mike was a tireless advocate for education, and he touched the lives of countless students through his years as a science teacher, educator, and mentor.
“We at the Stark Foundation are grateful for the vision and leadership that Michael Hoke provided at Shangri La during its early years. We also acknowledge the numerous other contributions that he made to the Orange community both before and after his 2013 retirement from Shangri La. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mike’s family.”
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