Athens County couple establishes scholarship to benefit students from their hometown
Hoy J and Shirley K. Seckinger are pictured with their granddaughter, Holly, on the day she graduated from high school. Like many in their family, Holly Seckinger, BBA ’02, MED ’19, went on to graduate from Ohio University – something Hoy J and Shirley K. Seckinger hope to help others from their hometown do with a scholarship they recently established.
Despite growing up a mere 13 miles from Athens and Ohio University, Hoy J Seckinger, BSED ’62, MED ’65, didn’t think he’d go to college after graduating in 1950 from the local high school. In that time and place, he said, there were limited job opportunities in the region.
Seventy years later, Hoy and his wife, Shirley, are doing something else they never thought they’d be able to do: establish an endowed scholarship that will help students from their hometown pursue their educational dreams.
The Hoy J and Shirley K. Seckinger Scholarship will be awarded to full-time undergraduate students at Ohio University who demonstrate financial need, with preference given to graduates of Athens County’s Trimble High School, which serves the communities of Glouster, Jacksonville and Trimble. In addition to opening the doors to an OHIO education for students in the tri-city area, the scholarship pays tribute to the role the University has played in the Seckingers’ extended family, Hoy’s legacy in the field of education and the sacrifices the couple made in pursuit of higher education.
“Coming from where I’m from and seeing where I ended up, it was all about school,” Hoy said when asked what he hopes students who receive this scholarship take away from it.
Hoy enrolled at Ohio University after then-President John Calhoun Baker spoke at his high school and approached him about coming to the University. Hoy completed a semester of studies at OHIO before enlisting in the Air Force in the midst of the Korean War. His time in the service was spent working in a military post office in Newfoundland, Canada.
When Hoy and Shirley returned to Athens, they faced the same struggle that was there when they left: how to pay for college. Shirley worked in the University’s library, which at the time was located in Chubb Hall, but the financial aid options available to OHIO students today didn’t exist.
Ohio University roots run deep in the Seckinger family. Hoy J Seckinger, BSED ’62, MED ’65, and his wife, Shirley, instilled in their sons, Hoy, BBA ’76, and Mark, BSIT ’79, the value of education and the importance of saving for college. Pictured (from left) are Holly Seckinger, BBA ’02, MED ’19, and her parents, Hoy, BBA ’76, and Sue Seckinger, who earned an associate’s degree from OHIO’s Patton College of Education.
Even though money was tight, Hoy went on to earn two degrees – a bachelor’s and master’s – from OHIO’s Patton College of Education. He then embarked on a career in education that began as an elementary school teacher and ended as principal and then superintendent of the Berne Union Local School District in Sugar Grove.
“I’d rather have been teaching,” Hoy said of moving into educational administration, a transition he made for financial reasons and to help support his family.
Hoy relished the many moments he had as an educator to impact the lives of his students, recalling in particular the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. At the time, Hoy was teaching fifth- and sixth-graders at a school in Nelsonville.
“I still get letters from students in that class thanking me for making that day easier for them because there was much confusion and I tried to tell them what was happening in the right way,” he said. “Not every class does that, but those kids shared that day together and got through it.”
Hoy’s son, Mark Seckinger, BSIT ’79, remembered a chance encounter he had at OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital in Athens where he serves as president. He came across a man who appeared lost, offered to help him and then introduced himself. When the man heard Mark’s last name and discovered he was Hoy’s son, he shared with Mark the difference his father had made in his life when, as a young student, Hoy approached him after he hadn’t done well on a test and asked him if he was having trouble reading. The student confirmed Hoy’s suspicions, to which Hoy replied with an offer to start staying after school and work one-on-one with the student to improve his reading skills.
“That gesture stuck with him for 60 years,” Mark said. “He just said what a great teacher (my dad) was. It gave me chills.”
The encouragement Hoy provided to his pupils extended to his home where he and Shirley conveyed to their two sons, Mark and Hoy, BBA ’76, the value of education and the importance of saving for college.
“We came home with money from our paper route and that went into the college fund,” said their son, Hoy.
The Seckinger sons’ hard work and saving paid off. Each graduated from Ohio University and found jobs with help from the University’s career services program.
“My brother got his first job and I got my first and second job, which was in the hospital, through the University’s placement office,” Mark said. “It was that important.”
After a lifetime of helping children, both theirs and others, reach their potential, Hoy and Shirley Seckinger have seen firsthand how education changes young people’s lives. Now, they’re enabling students from their hometown to follow their dreams by removing some of the financial burden of college.
“One hundred years from now, students will still be getting the Hoy and Shirley Scholarship,” Mark said. “That’s a special thing.”