Senator Michael Crider, Republican, District 28, Eastern Hancock Class of 1977, receives his award. Eastern Hancock introduced its first class of Eastern Hancock Distinguished Alumni. The first class includes Robert P. Bell, Charlottesville Class of 1937; Martin Ebbert, Eastern Hancock Class of 1969; Jane Hardisty, Eastern Hancock Class of 1970; State Senator Mike Crider, Eastern Hancock Class of 1977; U.S. Army Col. Kurt Connell, Eastern Hancock Class of 1989.
HANCOCK COUNTY — The message is clear. Anyone can accomplish something of importance — even make a major difference in their state, country and world — no matter if they happen to come from a modest, smaller, rural beginning.
That’s the case for the first five people selected into the Eastern Hancock Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame. The first class was celebrated this past Sunday during a reception ceremony and included five former Charlottesville or Eastern Hancock graduates.
Robert P. Bell, Charlottesville Class of 1937; Martin Ebbert, Eastern Hancock Class of 1969; Jane Hardisty, Eastern Hancock Class of 1970; State Senator Mike Crider, Eastern Hancock Class of 1977; and U.S Army Col. Kurt Connell, Eastern Hancock Class of 1989, are the first five members.
Ebbert, Hardisty and Crider, along with family members, attended the reception ceremony at the Overlook at Briney Creek, 687 South 400 East, Greenfield. Bell, who was the president of Ball State University from 1981-84 has since passed away and his family could not attend. As for Connell, who has earned the rank of U.S. Army Colonel, he is stationed outside of the United States in South Korea and couldn’t attend, but did have family members present.
Each of the three inductees who were able to attend noted they were incredibly humbled and quite surprised when they received word from the Eastern Hancock group they had been selected to the inaugural class of the Eastern Hancock Distinguished Wall of Fame.
For Crider, Eastern Hancock Class of 1977, he’s about to wrap up his 11th year of working as an Indiana State Senator after being elected in 2012. He’s been paramount in creating and sponsoring many laws around the state, making a real difference in Hoosier’s lives. He also currently serves as the Majority Whip for the leadership team. This comes after three decades of working in law enforcement as a conservation officer. Crider noted it is an honor to be recognized by his school district as a member of the first Wall of Fame class.
“I think if you would have asked my teachers back then when I was in high school if I was going to be a top officer in his agency in the state or certainly elected into a legislative position, they might have been a little surprised,” Crider said with a laugh. “I think life has given me some opportunities and I tried to take advantage of them, and I think anything positive that has happened for me is because I have worked hard. Sometimes that’s the most important thing you can do.”
Crider noted he enjoys working to make things better for the people of Indiana and attributed his success to marrying his high school sweetheart, Sherri Crider, and making other solid decisions early in life which he said led to opportunities down the road.
“I think I watched a lot of young people who had a lot of talent take themselves out of consideration for things because of silly decisions and I fortunately was never that guy,” Crider said. “To be recognized by Eastern Hancock is really very humbling.”
Among her many national achievements, Hardisty, a 1970 Eastern Hancock graduate, paved the way for women in agriculture as she worked for the United States Department of Agriculture as a professional soil and water conservationist from 1974 through 2018.
Not bad, she said, for a self-proclaimed “farm girl” who went on to receive the highest honor given by the Governor of Indiana in 2018 — the Sagamore of the Wabash.
“I think it’s great that the school district is doing something like this for the alumni for us to be able to share our accomplishments so the students can see what maybe they can aspire to be,” Hardisty said. “I was fortunate that everything kind of clicked for me, and I got to have a career in the field of agriculture because that is what I was always interested in.”
Ebbert, who graduated from Eastern Hancock in 1969 noted, while it was nice to be recognized by the school district, his whole life has been about one thing — living in the home county draped with a desire to serve others. Ebbert was a dedicated member of the Shirley Volunteer Fire Department for 46 years and raised his family under the motto of being proud of where you are from and to make it better.
“It is what we are here for is to serve others,” Ebbert said. “We’re supposed to set an example for others. I’m not a college-educated person because I didn’t want to go to college, but I still wanted to make a difference.”
That included working in a factory for decades and doing town maintenance in Shirley for some 20 years as well as being part of the Shirley town council and a dedicated church member.
“One of the things I’ve always told my sons is you have to be an asset whereever you are, no matter what you are doing,” Ebbert said.
The whole idea for the Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame, to be located on the west wall between the high school and athletic offices, started a few months ago. That’s when Eastern Hancock principal Adam Barton was walking through the halls of the school and noted there needed to be a special place to acknowledge some of the great people who have graduated from the district and gone on to accomplish major things. Plus, he felt allowing current students to see accomplished people might inspire current students.
“We think this will have a long-lasting impact on the students as they walk down our hallways and see what is possible,” Barton said. “We want kids to say, ‘Hey, I can do that when I grow up.’”
Barton noted common traits shared by all those selected into the Wall of Fame are strong leadership and service skills. Graduates of Eastern Hancock as well as Charlottesville, Westland and Wilkinson High Schools are all eligible for consideration. Officials say the plan is to add to the Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame each year.
“It’s pretty neat that a school the size of Eastern Hancock has so many people with such impressive credentials who are distinguished alumni,” EH Superintendent George Philhower said.
