Dr. Clifford L. Hendrix, Jr. has been named to receive the Distinguished Service Award according to the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga.
The Distinguished Service Award is considered the highest award given to a community leader in the Chattanooga area, officials said. It was first presented in 1922 and except for seven years, has been awarded annually.
The Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga was chartered in 1918 as a member of Kiwanis International.
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1930, our Dr. Hendrix says that the importance of learning was instilled in him and his two sisters from an early age by his father, a pattern-maker at US Pipe and Foundry, and his mother, a laundry worker at the McCallie School. While his parents did not finish high school, they wanted the best for their children and did what it took to give their children the best that they could.
Dr. Hendrix said that career opportunities for blacks were fairly limited in his day and that he felt that he had two alternatives—preaching and teaching. He chose teaching. He’s life in public education began at the flag-raising ceremony for the opening of the new James A. Henry Elementary School, one of the first new schools built in Chattanooga for African-American children on the west side of Chattanooga. He went on to graduate from Howard High School, serving the Class of 1948 as its salutatorian.
He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Tennessee State University in 1953 with a major in speech and drama and a minor in English. Following his graduation from Tennessee State, he entered the army and was a director of troop information and education, serving in the Engineering Aviation Battalion in Korea and Guam. The University of Tennessee awarded him the Doctorate of Education in Administration and Supervision in 1976.
Dr. Hendrix began his professional career as a teacher at Howard Junior and Senior High Schools, and he directed plays there for nine years. He became Assistant Principal and then Principal of Howard High School and next moved into the Central Office as Language Arts Specialist and Director of General Education. In 1977 he was named Assistant Superintendent. This veteran educator also served as interim City School Superintendent while a nation-wide search for a new chief was in progress. In 1993 he retired as Deputy Superintendent of the Chattanooga Public Schools.
He has been involved in many educational groups through the years beyond his own schools. He chaired the Legislative Committee of the Tennessee Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development in 1981-82 and has published several articles based on his school research.
Many are the contributions Dr. Hendrix has made to this community beyond the world of education. A board member of the United Way, he has served as chairman of that group’s education division. For six years he was on the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce; he served as secretary of the board of Family and Children’s Services and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Urban League and Chairman of the Education Committee for the Black Caucus of the Tennessee General Assembly. He has been a member of the University of Chattanooga Foundation, Rotary Club, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the Esquire Club. Moreover, he has served as a board member of WTCI TV45, the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Association, the Forest Hills Cemetery Association Board, and Junior Achievement. Very active in his church, Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist, where he is the Minister of Education, he also has served on its Trustee Board and been a long-time choir member.
He has been married for 47 years to the former Bobby Jones of Rome, Ga., who was a resource teacher and guidance counselor for 29 years in the Chattanooga Public Schools. They are the parents of a son who graduated from the University of Oregon with a major in communications and a daughter who completed undergraduate studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts with a major in music and film editing.
Dr. Hendrix’s former students say that when he was teaching, his deep baritone voice always inspired respect. These students relate anecdotes of his going from desk to desk asking them if they had their homework; if they did not, others would soon find out because his voice carried across the room. One former student said, “Everybody always respected this gentleman. He had that air about him. When he said something, you did it.”
Since his retirement in 1993 Dr. Hendrix has continued on the same path of activities in public life. In 1995 he and his wife began traveling across the United States and Canada in their camper visiting 48 states, often staying in state parks. In 2002 he was forced to give up traveling because of illness, yet he has continued to be involved in his church and in some public affairs. In March of 2004, he became quite ill, but he is making a comeback—walking, taking care of himself and beginning to enjoy being out once again.
This past summer more than 700 Tennessee State University supporters honored this individual at a gala at the Chattanooga Convention Center announcing that $110,000 had been raised to launch a chair named in his honor in education at TSU. At the time of the presentation, the TSU president said, “This is an extraordinary man who carries himself with the same dignity he instilled in generations of students.”