by Dr. Iain
Corness
The
secretary of the Pattaya International Ladies Club, and president-elect of
the Jomtien-Pattaya Rotary Club is an effervescent American lady, Judy
Hoppe. Her blonde hair and blue eyes are a reminder of her heritage, both
her parents being of German American immigrant stock.
She grew up on her parents’ small crops farm just
outside Carson City in Michigan in the US. Those were the days when people
worked hard, and none more so than descendants of the immigrants who had
been through the great depression. She was the youngest child, describing
herself as “the after-thought” but even as the youngest, she was
expected to go into the fields after school to help in the harvesting.
“We liked it when it was raining as we couldn’t work on the farm,”
she said, reminiscing of those days gone by. They were also the days which
did not include going to fancy restaurants for family treats. “I can’t
remember going to a restaurant until I went to college.”
Perhaps there were no restaurants in the schedule of
her hard working parents, neither of whom had completed high school, but
they both knew that education was a key to a better life in the future.
“My parents wanted their children to go to college.”
However, what this time in her development did teach
her was a strong work ethic. And the rewards that would come from hard
work. “When we picked fruit we got paid for how much we collected, just
like regular employees.” During her high school years she also worked
after school and Saturdays in the local hospital developing X-Rays.
She was a top 10 student and won a scholarship to go to
university. She saw the counselor and requested his help. “What can I do
that will get me out of here in four years?” was her primary
requirement. It was suggested she take a B.Sc. degree, which she did in
home economics, with a minor in family life. She explained this departure
from pure science as “I’m more of a people person than a mechanical
person.”
After university she entered the teaching profession,
working at middle school and high school levels, and in the evenings
became involved with community college classes. This ‘community’
involvement was something that was going to last the rest of her life.
She moved on to become an education consultant for the
state of Michigan, involved in the vocational education programmes for
handicapped, disadvantaged and displaced homemakers and non-English
speaking students. The very style of education that was not available for
her grandparents.
It was during this phase in her life that she met a
young engineer, Bruce Hoppe, who worked for General Motors, and they were
married. In time they were transferred to New York, and Judy began to
experience that side of the life of the corporate wife, someone who had to
get used to transfers. “The only real negative was that you were forced
to go out and find a whole new career.” She also added, “Every time I
changed jobs I got paid less!”
It was while she was in New York that her community
involvement became even stronger, and for the first time she experienced
the buzz of electioneering and the feeling of winning by popular acclaim.
An example was her being elected to the board, and then afterwards
president of a central school district board of education. She said, “If
I was going to complain, it was better for me to have a position that gave
me a vote on how the money was spent.”
Another move was in the offing, this time to Nashville
Tennessee as husband Bruce moved up his corporate ladder. She did not,
however, take up C&W ballads, but took the position as education
consultant for the Mental Health Association there, where she designed and
delivered health awareness programmes on mental health issues such as
bi-polar disorder, depression and teen suicide.
This was followed by other board and administration
committee jobs. She was an active corporate wife. This included continuous
personal education, “I think it’s important for everybody,” she
said.
Judy was also holding down another position - that of
being a mother. “My goal was always to work full-time when they were
little, but when they grew older I wanted to work part-time as it was
important to be there when the children came home.” She was also
fortunate that she had a babysitter at home, “Bruce baby-sat to let me
out to community things at night!”
And so the community minded woman was able to keep her
own needs satisfied, while at the same time looking after the needs of the
communities she lived in. “You have to give back to the community, which
makes you feel good about yourself that you are actually helping
somebody.”
Again there was to be another shift for the corporate
husband and wife - this time to Thailand with Judy joining Bruce in
October 2001. She had not been here long when she became involved in
community affairs. She began Thai language lessons, in a school where the
principal was heavily involved in Rotary. It did not require much
encouragement for her to join, as she had been a Rotarian in America.
Again she was very active, so much so that two years later she is the
president-elect. “It is important to get involved in whatever community
you live in. There is no point in complaining unless you are willing to
participate and run for an office and have a vote. Your vote does
count,” says Judy.
She has a couple of personal aims. The first is to live
to be older than 100 years (and still be fit), and the second is to travel
around the world. To make the former a possibility, she jogs every day,
takes her vitamins and calcium and eats healthy Thai food. For the latter,
she said, “This is half way round the world (from America), so I’m
half way already!”
