Page 153 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

513 John Frederick Raymond HYDE (1925-2016) (Inducted 7.10.1985; made a Paul Harris Fellow
2004; died 17.7.2016 in Spain whilst still a member.) Manufacturer,
weighing machines. Finance Director of George Salter & Co. (Staveley
Industries plc) based in West Bromwich until 1988 and then at Burnt Tree,
Tipton. John was born and raised in Dudley. He did National Service with
the RAF, then as a young man, worked in the Accounts department of
Goodyear & Co. of Churchfield Street, Dudley, manufacturers of car and
lorry wheels and owned by the Dunlop Rubber Co. While there he passed
the exams of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants. By 1959 John
had become Chief Accountant at associated company Dunlop Rim &
Wheel in the same premises. He then moved to George Salter & Co. as Chief Accountant but
soon became Finance Director of numerous companies in the Salter group, part of Staveley
Industries. He was briefly Finance Director of British Salt, another Staveley company, before
retiring in 1989. John was a keen golfer and a leading member of Dudley Golf Club where he
achieved the offices of Captain and President. Because of his great contribution to fund raising
as organiser for numerous years of the Club’s annual golf day, and service as Treasurer of the
Rotary Club of Dudley Housing Association 1989-1999, he was made a Paul Harris Fellow in 2004.
His home was at Penn, Wolverhampton but he died in Spain whilst staying at his son’s home.

514 Dr James (‘Jim’) Leroy HOERNER (1936-2017) (Inducted during 1985; left
1986/87.) Education, Further Education (Technical). He was a member of
the Rotary Club of Blacksburg, Virginia on a year’s teaching exchange from
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - ‘Virginia Tech’ - during
which he lectured at the Dudley campus of Wolverhampton Polytechnic.
He was a renowned expert in the field of vocational and technical training
and education reform. He was with Virginia Tech for 27 years, first as
Associate Professor and then Professor of educational leadership and policy
studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. During this
period he produced over 100 publications and presentations, held 22 national professional
leadership positions, and was influential in reforming vocational technical education in 42 US
states. On retirement in 2005 he was given the title Professor Emeritus.
He was raised on a small farm in Iowa and attended Iowa State University, then spent seven
years as a teacher of industrial arts at Alder Junior High School near San Bernardino, southern
California, where he pioneered the use of CCTV as a teaching aid. He did further studies at the
State University of California, Los Angeles, and from 1967-1969 at Ohio State University,
Columbus where he gained a PhD in Educational Administration. He moved to Miami, Florida
as Supervisor of Vocational Teacher Education for the Dade County Public Schools and, from
1971 also as Dean of Miami Dade Community College. During this period he divorced his first
wife and married Joyce, who was to become the first woman member of the Blacksburg Rotary
Club in 1988. After Miami-Dade he joined Virginia Tech but expanded his experience with
periods teaching at other universities in California, Miami and Hawaii, Germany, Austria, France,
Switzerland and the UK.
A few years before finally retiring he moved home to Bluffton, about 20 miles NE of Savannah,
South Carolina where he continued to research and lecture on education and chaired the
Lowcountry Tech Prep Consortium, a non-profit body promoting partnerships between the
education and business communities across several counties. He also became involved in local
community activism as Co-ordinator and, from 2013, Chairman of the local American Dream
Council, formed in opposition to the conservative, Republican-leaning Tea Party movement. He
was founder of the Sun City Hilton Head Woodworkers and Model Makers Guild - he learned
woodturning at age 13 and cabinetmaking at 15 - and from 2004 provided ‘Dr Jim’s’ monthly
classes for customers in Bluffton’s Home Depot store. While in Dudley, Jim learned the craft of
violin making, built his own violin and practised playing the instrument.