FRANCIS HISCOCK
named
Pentwater's
Citizen of the Year
Francis
Hiscock has been selected as the Pentwater Service Club’s 2011 Citizen
of the
Year. He will be honored in the annual Homecoming Parade and at a
dinner at the
Pentwater Yacht Club in September
Francis
and wife Elizabeth have been Pentwater residents since 1976 when they
built
their present home on Lake Street at the site of the Pentwater
Brickyard. Francis’s garden, and
particularly his rose
beds, have been a discovery and a destination for “turn around-ers” on
what was
once the road along the lake to Hart. Retiring as Vocational Dean of
Southwestern Michigan Community College, he filled in as acting
president at
West Shore Community College during his time at Pentwater.
Retirement
gave him more time for wood working, creating the pulpit, cross and
fixtures
for Centenary United Methodist Church, furniture for family and friends. Most recently, he built the seats for an open
sleigh for his friends at the Schmeiding Sawmill, who helped him locate
local
hardwoods.
Elizabeth
and Francis took delight in overseas travel including India, China,
Russia,
Turkey as well as Europe and continental United States. Their biggest
adventure
was installing an Alaska portable sawmill in then Zaire (Congo) and
showing
local workers how to make furniture with the boards they were
producing, although
the first board was used for a child’s coffin.
Francis
was a 1919 New Year’s baby born in Calhoun County where his
grandparents had homesteaded and farmed at
several locations.
He was on working relations with several teams of horses but went on to
serve
in the Navy as an airplane mechanic in WWII before returning to Western
Michigan University in the Industrial Arts program.
He taught machine shop first in Cadillac and
then at Portage before moving to Southwestern.
The education of the vocational student has always
been his passion.
Francis
and Elizabeth, now married 68 years, have three children, Anne(David)
Soles of
Pentwater, Tom (Connie) Hiscock of London, Ontario and Elaine (Ken)
Konyha of
Lake Worth, FL as well as seven grandchildren and now nine great
grandchildren.
CONTACT:
Mike Flynn
Chairman, Citizen of the Year Committee, Pentwater Service Club
(231) 869-5875