NewsUpper SchoolStudent LifeFaculty/StaffServiceResidential Life
Darlington announces Commencement plans
Apr 18, 2006 3:40 PM
By Tannika King - Faculty
As Darlington prepares to graduate its 101st class, the School is pleased to announce that Jim Van Es will speak at the Baccalaureate Service on May 19, and Jim Hendrix will be keynote speaker at Commencement on May 20.
Jim Van Es, Middle School principal, began teaching math and coaching basketball at Darlington in 1968. Nearly 40 years later, Van Es is still coaching the Tigers. This season, he won his 600th game, leading the team to their first-ever Rome News-Tribune Holiday Festival trophy and a region championship.
Van Es holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a Master of Education Administration from the University of Tennessee. During his tenure at Darlington, he has received the Oscar Betts Master Teacher Award, the R.M. Yankee Teacher Award and been a two-time recipient of the James Douglas Brown Jr. Faculty Award. He has also appeared in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers seven times.
For his dedication to coaching, Van Es has been recognized by Scholastic Coach Magazine with a National High School Coaching Award, been twice awarded the honor of Northwest Georgia Coach of the Year, and been named Region 6-AA Basketball Coach of the Year and Northwest Georgia Tip-Off Club Coach of the Year for 2005-06. Van Es is a member of Franklin Select Circle of High School Coaches.
Jim Hendrix, who currently serves as an educational consultant, will return to Darlington’s campus after serving as the School’s interim president in 2004-05. Hendrix has over 25 years of experience as a headmaster of three independent schools, in addition to serving as the head of a history/social studies department and academic dean for two independent schools and as history associate professor and dean of admissions and financial aid for two universities.
A native North Carolinian and 1963 graduate of Davidson College, Hendrix holds a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in History from Louisiana State University. He has chaired three Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation committees and has served as a member on five others. He has also served as co-leader of the Southern Association of Independent Schools Annual Summer Seminar in Independent School Administration.
Hendrix is a noted author and speaker on Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their exploration of the American West and Pacific Northwest for Thomas Jefferson. He is a 34-year veteran instructor of history, including courses in U.S. History, Ancient and Medieval History, American Studies, Advanced Placement U.S. History and various electives, such as History of Trans-Mississippi West, Fiction as History of the Recent American Experience and South and Southwest – Literature and History.
He is also an accomplished fly fisherman and outdoorsman, having trout and salmon fished in 18 states, New Zealand, Canada, Ecuador and Scotland, and is an avid backpacker, a hobby that included a 100-mile, week-long trek retracing part of the Lewis and Clark route in the Bitterroot Mountains of Northern Idaho.
The Baccalaureate Service will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, May 19 in Morris Chapel. Commencement will be Saturday, May 20 at 9:30 a.m. at the Upper School campus. For more information, please call 706-235-6051.
Jim Van Es, Middle School principal, began teaching math and coaching basketball at Darlington in 1968. Nearly 40 years later, Van Es is still coaching the Tigers. This season, he won his 600th game, leading the team to their first-ever Rome News-Tribune Holiday Festival trophy and a region championship.
Van Es holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a Master of Education Administration from the University of Tennessee. During his tenure at Darlington, he has received the Oscar Betts Master Teacher Award, the R.M. Yankee Teacher Award and been a two-time recipient of the James Douglas Brown Jr. Faculty Award. He has also appeared in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers seven times.
For his dedication to coaching, Van Es has been recognized by Scholastic Coach Magazine with a National High School Coaching Award, been twice awarded the honor of Northwest Georgia Coach of the Year, and been named Region 6-AA Basketball Coach of the Year and Northwest Georgia Tip-Off Club Coach of the Year for 2005-06. Van Es is a member of Franklin Select Circle of High School Coaches.
Jim Hendrix, who currently serves as an educational consultant, will return to Darlington’s campus after serving as the School’s interim president in 2004-05. Hendrix has over 25 years of experience as a headmaster of three independent schools, in addition to serving as the head of a history/social studies department and academic dean for two independent schools and as history associate professor and dean of admissions and financial aid for two universities.
A native North Carolinian and 1963 graduate of Davidson College, Hendrix holds a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in History from Louisiana State University. He has chaired three Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation committees and has served as a member on five others. He has also served as co-leader of the Southern Association of Independent Schools Annual Summer Seminar in Independent School Administration.
Hendrix is a noted author and speaker on Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their exploration of the American West and Pacific Northwest for Thomas Jefferson. He is a 34-year veteran instructor of history, including courses in U.S. History, Ancient and Medieval History, American Studies, Advanced Placement U.S. History and various electives, such as History of Trans-Mississippi West, Fiction as History of the Recent American Experience and South and Southwest – Literature and History.
He is also an accomplished fly fisherman and outdoorsman, having trout and salmon fished in 18 states, New Zealand, Canada, Ecuador and Scotland, and is an avid backpacker, a hobby that included a 100-mile, week-long trek retracing part of the Lewis and Clark route in the Bitterroot Mountains of Northern Idaho.
The Baccalaureate Service will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, May 19 in Morris Chapel. Commencement will be Saturday, May 20 at 9:30 a.m. at the Upper School campus. For more information, please call 706-235-6051.
