Every year, Friends of South inducts notable South alumni into the Axe Hall of Fame. This year, they honor eight accomplished alumni who The Axe had the opportunity to interview and spotlight.

Teachers are the backbone of any educational institution. Every student has that one teacher they remember most, whether it be because of their classroom, their personality, or their commitment to their students. 

For many students at South Eugene High School, John Hocken was that teacher, teaching physics at South from 1983 to 2001. 

He received his Bachelor’s degree in physics from Oregon State University and went on to pursue a graduate degree in physics from Cornell University. He is now a 2024 inductee into the South Hall of Fame. 

As a teacher, Hocken created an environment where students wanted to learn, and dedicated himself to making advanced science and physics classes a place for everyone.

When speaking to him, that was one of his proudest accomplishments. We were discussing changes at South over the years, and the percentage of female students came up. 

“It started as way under half, but I managed to get the female enrollment up to around 50 percent. That was a big change,” he said. 

During his time at both Churchill and South, Hocken worked with teachers across the science and math departments to prove that there was a place for women in STEM classes. 

When students, myself included, judge a class or a teacher, we often forget to take into account everything that goes on behind the scenes: the grading, set-up, and planning. Students tend to think of teachers’ days lasting from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. just as ours do. But this is not reality.

“When you’re a student, you can take for granted things like selecting textbooks and getting lab equipment arranged and writing tests and all that,” Hocken said. “And as a teacher, you are responsible for that, as well as anything else that comes along.”

It was responsibility, Hocken said, that was the real change. And yet the time spent in the classroom every day was the best part of the job. I asked him what the most difficult part of being a teacher, at least in his experience, was, and his answer truly showed the type of teacher he was for his students. 

“I really wanted all students to succeed, not just some, but everybody. Not all students met expectations they or other people placed on them so assigning grades and report cards could be very stressful. I didn’t like that.” 

As a student midterms and finals are universally dreaded, and what, in some cases, months of study have led up to. Everything is boiled down to just one test, one presentation. 

Hearing that Hocken shares those feelings, and can empathize with students, is such a rewarding thing. And it is a mark of a great teacher, someone who truly views his students as people. 

In addition to teaching, we talked about physics, a class that has often frightened many students away. I asked him why he chose physics, rather than chemistry or biology.

“Well,” he explained, “it seemed to be that physics was for the ones who were looking for fundamental and interesting questions. For example, I was told in chemistry what the mass of a proton was, and I asked how would you measure that? The answer I got was essentially physics, and that seemed to be the answer to lots of my questions that year. So, there it was.”

And that is how it went. However, Hocken did not start his path into physics with the intention to teach. Rather he started with a quest to answer those fundamental questions. 

“I didn’t always plan to be a teacher,” Hocken said. “After I graduated from Oregon State, I enrolled in Cornell University to pursue graduate studies in physics. After a year of graduate school and a summer working at a government research lab, Lawrence Livermore in California. I decided to pursue a career in physics education, my experience at Cornell and Livermore showed that while I enjoyed research I wasn’t inspired enough to spend the rest of my life doing it. I thought teaching would do that.”

And Hocken’s career as a teacher would go on to inspire decades of students to follow their passions. He has been honored as an outstanding educator at Cornell University and even has a $4,000 scholarship created in his name. 

Today, his daughter Sarah Hocken is a teacher at South, teaching a variety of chemistry classes. John Hocken has occasionally stepped in as a substitute teacher and has returned several times to teach a unit on special relativity to her AP chemistry students.

The last thing I asked him about was how he liked to spend his time now that he was retired. 

“I have always enjoyed things like camping and working outside in the garden and reading,” he said. “After I retired, I spent several years volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and worked in the Positive Change Courtyard [at South]. Currently, I read a lot and really enjoy that and spend time visiting with my family, my kids, and my grandkids.”

John Hocken has been an exemplary teacher, creating positive change and contributing to the lives of so many students. He is a true testament to the values of South Eugene High School, and an incredibly deserving candidate to be inducted into the South Hall of Fame. 

Read more about John Hocken on the Friends of South website.

Article by Hollis Mann