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THE MADISON COUNTY (GA1 JOURNAL. THURSDAY. APRIL 2, 2009 — PAGE 3A
A teacher with stories to tell
Alone Among the Living,
University of Georgia Press
published 1994, The
MCHS’s Richard
Hoard penned
memoir of father’s
1961 murder
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
ichard Hoard gets
right to the point.
“When I was 20 I
came face-to-face with the old
man convicted of paying $5,000
for the murder of my father.”
Those are the transfixing
first words of the Madison
County High School teacher's
1994 non-fiction work, “Alone
Among the Living,” a mem
oir telling Hoard’s adolescent
viewpoint of the 1967 car
bombing that killed his father,
Floyd, the solicitor general of
the Piedmont Judicial District.
Hoard, now 56, is in his
first year teaching English at
MCHS, following stints at
other area high schools over
the years and even two col
leges.
Hoard published a well-
received second book after
“Alone Among the Living” and
is shopping around a third, but
the story of his father's death
remains his most challenging
work, for obvious reasons.
“It was painful to write,” said
Hoard, who's in his first year
at MCHS. “So I would get
overwhelmed by it at times and
leave it alone.”
Hoard was only a 14-year-
old Jefferson High School stu
dent when a notorious bootleg
ger arranged for the wiring of
dynamite to the engine of his
father's car, a killing done in
retaliation for Floyd Hoard's
dogged pursuit of those pro
ducing non tax-paid alcohol in
Jackson County.
Richard Hoard began putting
down those painful memories
of his father's death - and those
of growing up in Jefferson in
general — on paper as part of
a college writing assignment in
the early 1970s.
Hoard kept those composi-
Richard Hoard
tions, added to them and fash
ioned them into a book as the
years passed.
“Alone Among the Living's”
publication in 1994 culminated
two decades worth of writ
ing for Hoard. He talks of the
catharsis that followed upon
finally seeing those words in
print, likening publication to
something purged from the
body.
“That was in me,” Hoard
said. “I'm glad that’s out of me
and up on the shelf now. I don’t
have to hold onto or see things
like that anymore.”
Hoard has since stuck to seri
ous subject matter.
He followed “Alone Among
the Living” with the award
winning “The Race Before Us”
in 2005, a fictional look at
racial tensions in 1962 inspired
by attitudes Hoard observed in
his youth.
The working title for his yet-
to-be-published third book is
“Rainfall on the Righteous,”
a story of a 31-year-old min
isterial student whose fear of
death is so marked that the
denominational authorities
won’t ordain him.
Though fiction, the story
is rooted in very real experi
ences.
As a ministerial student
himself years ago, Hoard was
assigned to the pediatric floor
of a research hospital where
he dealt with 36 deaths in one
semester.
The book is a departure from
what’s out there. Hoard says,
but he's trying to convince pub
lishers to take a chance on it.
“You feel like you’ve got a
good story, but it's not like
other stories,” he said.
Whether or not his third book
is published, Richard Hoard
remains a busy and well-
rounded man.
Away from MCHS, he pas
tors at Oconee River Methodist
Church in Watkinsville. He’s
also enjoyed a sportscasting
career and occasionally enter
tains crowds with his celebrity
impersonations (offering up an
impromptu Walter Brennan as
evidence).
Hoard even boasts a brief
film resume — seven seconds
to be exact—portraying a U.S.
president in the 1994 historical
baseball picture, “Cobb.”
“My mama was right,” Hoard
said. “She told me when I was
a kid, I could grow up to be
president. And I was. I was
president Calvin Coolidge - for
seven seconds.”
BACK IN THE
CLASSROOM
Hoard, who returned to teach
ing in August, calls the class
room a source of inspiration.
“When you go through
those periods of times when
you're lethargic and not being
very creative, it jump-starts
you,” said Hoard, who taught
MCHS principal Tommy Craft
at Jefferson High School. “It
brings you back to life to be in
that type of environment.”
Some of Hoard’s students
occasionally ran across his
books.
“They have,” he said. “They
know about it. I don’t talk about
it a whole lot.”
FIFTEEN
YEARS LATER
Fifteen years have passed
since the first printing of
“Alone Among the Living,” but
Hoard's first book still gener
ates interest today.
“Alone” has gone through
four printings and the UGA
press released a second edition
just two years ago.
Hoard is proud that its legacy
persists.
“There have been enough
who have expressed that
they’ve been touched by it, or
entertained by it, or moved by
it, that it’s a rewarding thing,”
Hoard said.
Madison County’s
unemployment rate up, but
remains below state average
Madison County's unemployment rate rose to 8.4
percent for February, up from 7.6 in January.
However, the rate remains below the state average of
9.6 percent, which is up 4.5 percentage points over last
year’s figure.
“The latest local unemployment rates reflect the
severity of the on-going recession in Georgia,” said
State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. “In
87 of our state's 159 counties, double-digit unemploy
ment is a sobering reality. A rising tide of joblessness
is spreading across our state.”
The Georgia Department of Labor announced its
preliminary February unemployment figures last week,
showing 1,377 people unemployed in Madison County,
up from 1,250 in January.
Unemployment rates in surrounding counties were:
Hart, 13.8 percent; Elbert, 13.2; Franklin, 11.4; Jackson,
10.3; Oglethorpe, 8.3; Banks, 7.4 and Clarke, 7.2.
The Georgia counties with the highest unemploy
ment rates are Jenkins at 21.3 percent, Hancock at 19.1
percent, and Warren at 16.8 percent. The counties with
the lowest rates are Oconee at 6.0 percent, Lee and
Long at 6.7 percent.
Georgia’s unemployment rate remained above the
national rate of 8.1 percent for the 16th consecutive
month.
At present, 445,498 unemployed Georgians are look
ing for work, an increase of 69.2 percent over the year.
Of that number, 159,359, or 35.8 percent, are receiving
unemployment insurance benefits.
Georgia labor market data are available at www.dol.
state.ga.us.
Census workers to start
data collection next week
By Kerri Testement
kem@mainstreetnews.com
The first step for the 2010
Census begins next week —
when workers start collecting
address information.
The Census Bureau will
update more than 145 million
addresses across the nation
in preparation of the 2010
Census.
In Northeast Georgia, about
1,000 in-field and office
Census workers based from
an office in Gainesville are
preparing to collect address
information.
“Our goal is to identify
every place where people
live or could live.” said Carol
Zaremba, local Census office
manager for a region that
includes 31 Northeast Georgia
counties.
That means getting the
address information for every
house, apartment, mobile
home and shelter in the coun
try. The process starts Monday,
April 6. and is expected to
continue through mid-June or
late-July, she added.
Collecting those addresses
is the first step before send
ing a census questionnaire in
March 2010.
“We want to make sure that
our address list is as accu
rate as possible, so that when
we actually take the census in
2010, that we are able to count
every single resident of every
single county,” Zaremba said.
For more information, visit
www.census.gov.
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MADISON COUNTY INDUSTRIAL
DEVELOPMENT AND BUILDING AUTHORITY
NOTICE OF REQUEST
FOR PROPOSAL
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL NUMBER: 09002SGM
PROPOSAL DUE DATE: April 29, 2009, at 2:00 P.M.
PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL LOCATION:
Carter Engineering Consultants, Inc.
1551 Jennings Mill Road
Building 500, Suite B
Bogart, GA 30622
Phone: 706-559-7430
MATERIAL OR SERVICE:
Construction services related to the installation of a
siphon system and plunge pool at Seagraves Mill
Dam located in Madison County, Georgia.
CONTACT:
Pamela Lindsey, Administrative Assistant
(706) 559-7430
Pamela@carterengineering.net
Interested offerors may obtain a copy of the complete
solicitation by calling (706) 559-7430. Due to the printing
and reproduction costs, the bid package can be emailed
for a cost of $100 or hard copies mailed or picked up for
a cost of $200.
Competitive sealed bids for the specified service shall
be received by Carter Engineering at the address above.
Proposals must be in the actual possession of Carter
Engineering at the location indicated, on or prior to the
exact time and date indicated above. Late proposals
shall not be considered.
Proposals must be submitted in a sealed envelope. The
Request for Proposal number and the offeror's name
and address should be clearly indicated on the outside
of the envelope. Questions must be addressed to the
contact person listed above.
The Madison County Industrial Development and
Building Authority reserves the right to reject any and
all bids for consideration.
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